The Four Brewers podcast uses mp3 files with chapter markers that allow you to easily skip to different parts of the show. Overcast for iOS and Podcast Addict for Android are two examples of apps that utilize this handy feature. If your podcast player doesn't support chapter markers, then simply reference the time stamps listed above for this episode.

The Four Brewers podcast uses mp3 files with chapter markers that allow you to easily skip to different parts of the show. Overcast for iOS and Podcast Addict for Android are two examples of apps that utilize this handy feature. If your podcast player doesn't support chapter markers, then simply reference the time stamps listed above for this episode.

It’s been a rough year and we’ve got gluttony knocking on our door (it’s Christmas Eve and the first day of Hanukkah) so we’re gonna keep this post short…

The 2016 Holiday Beers

1. Don’t buy those pre-made holiday beer gift packs. They’re usually all old beers that didn’t sell and were repackaged in a holiday-style gift box. This doesn’t mean those beers are inherently bad, but they’re probably past their prime and you won’t enjoy them as much if they were fresh.

2. Buy local craft “seasonal” beers. You’ll be much happier and you’ll #LiveLocal.

3. Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow and how you can help to make our world a better place. This, by far, is of utmost importance.

It’s been a rough year and we’ve got gluttony knocking on our door (it’s Christmas Eve and the first day of Hanukkah) so we’re gonna keep this post short…

The 2016 Holiday Beers

1. Don’t buy those pre-made holiday beer gift packs. They’re usually all old beers that didn’t sell and were repackaged in a holiday-style gift box. This doesn’t mean those beers are inherently bad, but they’re probably past their prime and you won’t enjoy them as much if they were fresh.

2. Buy local craft “seasonal” beers. You’ll be much happier and you’ll #LiveLocal.

3. Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow and how you can help to make our world a better place. This, by far, is of utmost importance.

]]>55:19yes[S3/E51] Invasive Species vs. SculpinSun, 18 Dec 2016 21:33:58 +0000Season 3, Episode 51 – This week, we find out who will rein supreme in the battle between the Light side of the sea, and the Dark side.

Does anyone else smell fish? What is that? Oh, pshht…I know what it is. It’s a Sculpin from Ballast Point Brewing, and an Invasive Species from Beachwood Brewing! We invited both of these underwater dwellers to battle it out on the show this week, with hopes of figuring out which one of these is the bigger fish to fry.

The Beachwood/Ballast Point Showdow

A little back story: once upon a time, Ballast Point Brewing out of San Diego, California, was one the most respected craft brewers in the San Diego beer scene, until the company was sold to Constellation Brands, Inc. for a cool one billion clams (snicker). Since then, many beer geeks have written the brewery off as a “sell out” and stopped buying their products, and some have decided to overlook the buyout and just focus on the beer. But, just because a brewery sells to a larger macro brewery or company doesn’t necessarily mean the quality of their product will suffer, although sometimes recipes and practices tend to change over time to drive down cost and increase profit. In the case of Ballast Point, the beers are still pretty great for the most part.

Enter Beachwood Brewing. Beachwood has been very vocal about their brewing independence and dedication to true craft beer. In a very tongue-in-cheek move, they decided to brew a series of beers that were inspired by Ballast Point’s Sculpin IPA and variants thereof, that positioned Beachwood to both comment on and snub Ballast Point and their wildly popular fruited beers. While they didn’t come out and blatantly say “fuck you,” to Ballast Point (for whatever reason, outside of the obvious craft vs. macro battle cry), the line of beers they brewed and subsequently named “Invasive Species” (with a depiction of a dead fish on the beer bottle’s label) sure did imply it. Fight!

So, here we are. We purchased the freshest Sculpin IPA and variants of Sculpin IPA (and Even Keel) that we could find and put them up against the two-week-old bottles of Beachwood’s Invasive Species IPA and variants. Who will prevail? You can probably guess who we’re rooting for…

]]>Season 3, Episode 51 – This week, we find out who will rein supreme in the battle between the Light side of the sea, and the Dark side.

Does anyone else smell fish? What is that? Oh, pshht…I know what it is. It’s a Sculpin from Ballast Point Brewing, and an Invasive Species from Beachwood Brewing! We invited both of these underwater dwellers to battle it out on the show this week, with hopes of figuring out which one of these is the bigger fish to fry.

The Beachwood/Ballast Point Showdow

A little back story: once upon a time, Ballast Point Brewing out of San Diego, California, was one the most respected craft brewers in the San Diego beer scene, until the company was sold to Constellation Brands, Inc. for a cool one billion clams (snicker). Since then, many beer geeks have written the brewery off as a “sell out” and stopped buying their products, and some have decided to overlook the buyout and just focus on the beer. But, just because a brewery sells to a larger macro brewery or company doesn’t necessarily mean the quality of their product will suffer, although sometimes recipes and practices tend to change over time to drive down cost and increase profit. In the case of Ballast Point, the beers are still pretty great for the most part.

Enter Beachwood Brewing. Beachwood has been very vocal about their brewing independence and dedication to true craft beer. In a very tongue-in-cheek move, they decided to brew a series of beers that were inspired by Ballast Point’s Sculpin IPA and variants thereof, that positioned Beachwood to both comment on and snub Ballast Point and their wildly popular fruited beers. While they didn’t come out and blatantly say “fuck you,” to Ballast Point (for whatever reason, outside of the obvious craft vs. macro battle cry), the line of beers they brewed and subsequently named “Invasive Species” (with a depiction of a dead fish on the beer bottle’s label) sure did imply it. Fight!

So, here we are. We purchased the freshest Sculpin IPA and variants of Sculpin IPA (and Even Keel) that we could find and put them up against the two-week-old bottles of Beachwood’s Invasive Species IPA and variants. Who will prevail? You can probably guess who we’re rooting for…

]]>43:12yes[S3/E50] The Midwest Mailbag MeleeMon, 12 Dec 2016 00:48:22 +0000Season 3, Episode 50 – This week, 4B fans sent us a bunch of beers from the Midwestern United States of America.

It’s a mailbag melee! If you’re wondering what that is, exactly, it means that all of the beers on the show this week are from the Midwest and from 4B listeners. We are always desperately in need of beers from other parts of the country (and world, for that matter) that aren’t accessible to us otherwise, and we’re always down to showcase them on the show.

Midwest Beers

The beers submitted this week are from two supporters of Four Brewers on Patreon, Sandro Chiavaro, and Nick Puddy. Not only did these awesome dudes give us beer for the podcast, but they both gave us beers to be featured on Matt and Jason’s YouTube show, Cheap Beer Corner. Not only that, but Nick went above and beyond and even sent us his rauchbier homebrew. That’s how you do it, folks—the trifecta.

Many thanks to Sandro and Nick for the beers. If you’d like us to feature your favorite unknown brewery or breweries, drop us a line at feedback@fourbrewers.com, or hit up the contact page.

]]>Season 3, Episode 50 – This week, 4B fans sent us a bunch of beers from the Midwestern United States of America.

It’s a mailbag melee! If you’re wondering what that is, exactly, it means that all of the beers on the show this week are from the Midwest and from 4B listeners. We are always desperately in need of beers from other parts of the country (and world, for that matter) that aren’t accessible to us otherwise, and we’re always down to showcase them on the show.

Midwest Beers

The beers submitted this week are from two supporters of Four Brewers on Patreon, Sandro Chiavaro, and Nick Puddy. Not only did these awesome dudes give us beer for the podcast, but they both gave us beers to be featured on Matt and Jason’s YouTube show, Cheap Beer Corner. Not only that, but Nick went above and beyond and even sent us his rauchbier homebrew. That’s how you do it, folks—the trifecta.

Many thanks to Sandro and Nick for the beers. If you’d like us to feature your favorite unknown brewery or breweries, drop us a line at feedback@fourbrewers.com, or hit up the contact page.

Metal music and beer. The two were practically made for one another. This week, we’re drinking three beers from craft breweries that collaborated with metal/rock bands to make some of the heaviest beers out there, baby.

Metal Band Collaboration Beers

Bands teaming up with breweries to make a co-branded collaboration beer is nothing new, and for the most part, bands collaborate with craft breweries over macro breweries (eh, Metallica and Budweiser? No thanks…). You’re probably are unaware of how many such beers are actually out there and have been made, and we cover this on the show–it’s quite a few.

We narrowed the selection to three bands and three breweries: Iron Maiden and Robinson Brewery, Deftones and Belching Beaver Brewery, and finally, Megadeth and Unibroue. While some bands tend to play it safe and go with more traditional styles, some think outside the box and actually try to find a brewery capable of delivering a truly unique brew. The beers on the show this week represent this spectrum.

We end the show with another round of Going In Blind with beers that John selected. He went out of his way to go for a theme and at the same time, tried to throw a monkey wrench in the gears.

Metal music and beer. The two were practically made for one another. This week, we’re drinking three beers from craft breweries that collaborated with metal/rock bands to make some of the heaviest beers out there, baby.

Metal Band Collaboration Beers

Bands teaming up with breweries to make a co-branded collaboration beer is nothing new, and for the most part, bands collaborate with craft breweries over macro breweries (eh, Metallica and Budweiser? No thanks…). You’re probably are unaware of how many such beers are actually out there and have been made, and we cover this on the show–it’s quite a few.

We narrowed the selection to three bands and three breweries: Iron Maiden and Robinson Brewery, Deftones and Belching Beaver Brewery, and finally, Megadeth and Unibroue. While some bands tend to play it safe and go with more traditional styles, some think outside the box and actually try to find a brewery capable of delivering a truly unique brew. The beers on the show this week represent this spectrum.

We end the show with another round of Going In Blind with beers that John selected. He went out of his way to go for a theme and at the same time, tried to throw a monkey wrench in the gears.

Oskar Blues Brewery is one of the earliest modern craft breweries to exclusively use cans for packaging their beer. Everything from lager to imperial stout goes into cans short, tall, and wide. Oskar Blues even invented the “Crowler”, a 32 ounce growler made out of an aluminum can. Not only are they ahead of their time with their packaging, they also make some killer beer.

Oskar Blues Beers

The seven beers on the show this week are but a small representation of what Oskar Blues brews. They recently debuted barrel-aged Ten Fidy in tall cans (which Jason coincidentally drank all to himself the night before the recording of this episode), as well as their new 19.2 ounce (holy moly!) “Stove Pipe” cans.

Dale’s Pale Ale is by far the most ubiquitous of Oskar Blues’ offerings, followed by the deliciously contrasting imperial stout, Ten Fidy. Oskar Blues is a beer geek’s brewery–they can do it all, and they do it all quite well. It’s safe to assume that if you’ve never tried anything from them, you’ll probably be pretty happy with at least one beer they make when you do try something.

(…also, you can use their cans to smoke weed when you’re done drinking the beer!)

Oskar Blues Brewery is one of the earliest modern craft breweries to exclusively use cans for packaging their beer. Everything from lager to imperial stout goes into cans short, tall, and wide. Oskar Blues even invented the “Crowler”, a 32 ounce growler made out of an aluminum can. Not only are they ahead of their time with their packaging, they also make some killer beer.

Oskar Blues Beers

The seven beers on the show this week are but a small representation of what Oskar Blues brews. They recently debuted barrel-aged Ten Fidy in tall cans (which Jason coincidentally drank all to himself the night before the recording of this episode), as well as their new 19.2 ounce (holy moly!) “Stove Pipe” cans.

Dale’s Pale Ale is by far the most ubiquitous of Oskar Blues’ offerings, followed by the deliciously contrasting imperial stout, Ten Fidy. Oskar Blues is a beer geek’s brewery–they can do it all, and they do it all quite well. It’s safe to assume that if you’ve never tried anything from them, you’ll probably be pretty happy with at least one beer they make when you do try something.

(…also, you can use their cans to smoke weed when you’re done drinking the beer!)

We decided to do something special this week. Having women on the show is nothing new to Four Brewers, but we wanted to take it to the next level and hand over the entire show to some local beer geeks who also happen to be women. Full transparency, John decided to throw this show together at the last minute. That’s important to know because Natalie DeNicholas (of Maltose Falcons and Sanctum Brewing Co.) literally had two days to put this show together. Of course, she went above and beyond and picked up over ten super-fresh beers from five different breweries that sent her on a journey across the greater Los Angeles basin.

Natalie, Daniella, and Stacey

Natalie is joined by fellow Sanctum beer server Daniella Lopez, and owner of Craft Beer Babes clothing company, Stacey Moffett. Technically, John is also on the show, and is mostly referred to as “The Ghost”, since he’s not actually supposed to be on the show. The beers on the show this week are all brewed by women, and/or are owned in part or wholly by women. The selection of beers are wide ranging and complex (and at times challenging), while still maintaining their appeal to Natalie, Daniella, and Stacey’s individual palates.

Natalie DeNicholas Loves Beer

We can’t thank these ladies enough for taking over the show and providing a fresh perspective on craft beer and the community. Cheers!

]]>Season 3, Episode 47 – This week, we hand over the keys to the show…

We decided to do something special this week. Having women on the show is nothing new to Four Brewers, but we wanted to take it to the next level and hand over the entire show to some local beer geeks who also happen to be women. Full transparency, John decided to throw this show together at the last minute. That’s important to know because Natalie DeNicholas (of Maltose Falcons and Sanctum Brewing Co.) literally had two days to put this show together. Of course, she went above and beyond and picked up over ten super-fresh beers from five different breweries that sent her on a journey across the greater Los Angeles basin.

Natalie, Daniella, and Stacey

Natalie is joined by fellow Sanctum beer server Daniella Lopez, and owner of Craft Beer Babes clothing company, Stacey Moffett. Technically, John is also on the show, and is mostly referred to as “The Ghost”, since he’s not actually supposed to be on the show. The beers on the show this week are all brewed by women, and/or are owned in part or wholly by women. The selection of beers are wide ranging and complex (and at times challenging), while still maintaining their appeal to Natalie, Daniella, and Stacey’s individual palates.

Natalie DeNicholas Loves Beer

We can’t thank these ladies enough for taking over the show and providing a fresh perspective on craft beer and the community. Cheers!

The Pacific Northwest is considered by many to be beer Mecca. We would agree if we didn’t live in beer Mecca, here in SoCal (we kid)! Anywho…

Worthy Brewing Beers

The beers on the show this week are from a brewery that’s new to the 4B crew, Worthy Brewing. These beers, along with a gift package that included four Worthy branded shirts, four Worthy branded sunglasses, and an almost empty bottle of Aspirin (not Worthy branded), were sent to us by Ken Sorenson. Ken used to work at the world famous Toronado craft beer bar out of Seattle, Washington, working as manager under none other than the mighty Matt Bonney. Ken is now the Washington Sales Manager for Worthy Brewing.

Thanks for the beers, Ken! Worthy is making some solid brew and totally worth a visit if you’re in Bend, Oregon and a solid buy if you see them on the shelf of your local liquee store.

]]>Season 3, Episode 45 – This week, 4B fan Ken Sorenson, sent us some brews from Bend, Oregon’s Worthy Brewing. Are they worthy? Are WE worthy?!

The Pacific Northwest is considered by many to be beer Mecca. We would agree if we didn’t live in beer Mecca, here in SoCal (we kid)! Anywho…

Worthy Brewing Beers

The beers on the show this week are from a brewery that’s new to the 4B crew, Worthy Brewing. These beers, along with a gift package that included four Worthy branded shirts, four Worthy branded sunglasses, and an almost empty bottle of Aspirin (not Worthy branded), were sent to us by Ken Sorenson. Ken used to work at the world famous Toronado craft beer bar out of Seattle, Washington, working as manager under none other than the mighty Matt Bonney. Ken is now the Washington Sales Manager for Worthy Brewing.

Thanks for the beers, Ken! Worthy is making some solid brew and totally worth a visit if you’re in Bend, Oregon and a solid buy if you see them on the shelf of your local liquee store.

]]>47:37yes[S3/E45] Tracing Space in TemeculaMon, 07 Nov 2016 00:02:28 +0000Season 3, Episode 45 – This week on the show, Temecula’s Beer Ambassador, aka John Ryti, joins us with some new stuff from Ironfire Brewing and Relentless Brewing, and we also try a little beer named Space Trace from Bottle Logic Brewing.

Temecula is quite the hot spot in the Inland Empire brewing scene, and if you have yet to visit and check out the breweries around the area, you’re totally missing out. Ironfire has been a mainstay for us locals over the past few years, while Relentless is the new kid on the block who’s already proving to be a must-visit brewery.

We wrap up the show with Bottle Logic Brewing’s newest barrel-aged-beer-geek-bomb called Space Trace. This beer is their barrel-aged German Chocolate Cake Stout (which we also drink on the show this week) and DUDE, it is amazing. Much thanks to Matt Robertson at Bottle Logic for hitting us up and giving us a bottle. (It’s so fuggin’ good…)

]]>Season 3, Episode 45 – This week on the show, Temecula’s Beer Ambassador, aka John Ryti, joins us with some new stuff from Ironfire Brewing and Relentless Brewing, and we also try a little beer named Space Trace from Bottle Logic Brewing.

Temecula is quite the hot spot in the Inland Empire brewing scene, and if you have yet to visit and check out the breweries around the area, you’re totally missing out. Ironfire has been a mainstay for us locals over the past few years, while Relentless is the new kid on the block who’s already proving to be a must-visit brewery.

We wrap up the show with Bottle Logic Brewing’s newest barrel-aged-beer-geek-bomb called Space Trace. This beer is their barrel-aged German Chocolate Cake Stout (which we also drink on the show this week) and DUDE, it is amazing. Much thanks to Matt Robertson at Bottle Logic for hitting us up and giving us a bottle. (It’s so fuggin’ good…)

]]>55:38yes[S3/E44] Brewery Rex with Tyler King and Brian WhiteTue, 01 Nov 2016 01:23:12 +0000Season 3, Episode 44 – Tyler King and Brian White join us in the studio to talk about their new brewery, Brewery Rex.

So. Brewery Rex. Ever heard of them? Chances are maybe you have, but probably not. Brewery Rex is Tyler King (formerly, the Director of Brewing Operations at The Bruery) and Brian White’s (Monkish Brewing, Chapman Crafted) newest venture. They have been in the process of opening the brewery for a couple of years now, but the public really knew nothing about the place. Tyler and Brian decided it was finally time to come to the 4B studio and share some of the details and collective vision about the brewery.

This Week’s Beers

We cover quite a bit of territory on the show this week, from what Tyler and Brian want the brewery to be, to craft beer burnout and what to do to avoid it. Yeah, we go deep this week. Tyler and Brian have some fresh and interesting ideas about opening their own space. We’re pretty excited to be able to hopefully try some of their brews within the next year or so and you should be, too.

Oh, and this week’s show also marks the first time we put a lime in a bottle of beer and drink it. Thanks, Tyler. Thanks, Brian…

]]>Season 3, Episode 44 – Tyler King and Brian White join us in the studio to talk about their new brewery, Brewery Rex.

So. Brewery Rex. Ever heard of them? Chances are maybe you have, but probably not. Brewery Rex is Tyler King (formerly, the Director of Brewing Operations at The Bruery) and Brian White’s (Monkish Brewing, Chapman Crafted) newest venture. They have been in the process of opening the brewery for a couple of years now, but the public really knew nothing about the place. Tyler and Brian decided it was finally time to come to the 4B studio and share some of the details and collective vision about the brewery.

This Week’s Beers

We cover quite a bit of territory on the show this week, from what Tyler and Brian want the brewery to be, to craft beer burnout and what to do to avoid it. Yeah, we go deep this week. Tyler and Brian have some fresh and interesting ideas about opening their own space. We’re pretty excited to be able to hopefully try some of their brews within the next year or so and you should be, too.

Oh, and this week’s show also marks the first time we put a lime in a bottle of beer and drink it. Thanks, Tyler. Thanks, Brian…

Recently, at the Inland Empire Brewers Guild Summer Send Off Festival, we ran into Amanda Barnes, sales representative for Track 7 Brewing Company, and tried a couple of beers that they brought to the fest. After a bit of conversation and an exchange of business cards, a box of beer from Track 7 magically appeared on our doorstep a couple of weeks later. NICE.

Track 7 Brewing Company Beers

Track 7 Brewing Company is fairly new and they are already showing signs of being a great brewery. Their beers are already fairly widely available all over southern California and are being well received, as far as we can tell. The beers on the show this week range from a honey blonde ale to a peanut butter porter. There were also some hoppy beers in the mix which we all thought were really, really good, especially their Panic IPA. They’re sticking to the classic west coast-style IPA and double IPA formula, which is nice, considering how so many breweries are starting to experiment with the “juicy” New England-style IPA.

Track 7 is definitely on track (oh, puns) to becoming a great California brewery. Give their beers a try if you see them out in the wild.

Recently, at the Inland Empire Brewers Guild Summer Send Off Festival, we ran into Amanda Barnes, sales representative for Track 7 Brewing Company, and tried a couple of beers that they brought to the fest. After a bit of conversation and an exchange of business cards, a box of beer from Track 7 magically appeared on our doorstep a couple of weeks later. NICE.

Track 7 Brewing Company Beers

Track 7 Brewing Company is fairly new and they are already showing signs of being a great brewery. Their beers are already fairly widely available all over southern California and are being well received, as far as we can tell. The beers on the show this week range from a honey blonde ale to a peanut butter porter. There were also some hoppy beers in the mix which we all thought were really, really good, especially their Panic IPA. They’re sticking to the classic west coast-style IPA and double IPA formula, which is nice, considering how so many breweries are starting to experiment with the “juicy” New England-style IPA.

Track 7 is definitely on track (oh, puns) to becoming a great California brewery. Give their beers a try if you see them out in the wild.

This week we’re featuring a brewery that all of us on the podcast seem to have unintentionally overlooked over the years, Sudwerk Brewing Co.. Turns out, Sudwerk make some really great beer that most definitely should not be overlooked or taken for granted.

Sudwerk Brewing Co. Beers

The beers on this week’s episode were provided to us by Sudwerk. We met up with them during the California Craft Beer Summit last month. They had previously expressed online how stoked they were about ranking second in our blind Pilsner Showdown, and when we ran into KB Brandl (Sudwerk’s Events and Marketing Coordinator) she insisted that we try more of their beer on the show. Sounded good to us!

Sudwerk sent us five beers for the show this week, three of which are part of their “Brewers Cut Reserve Series“. Turns out, Sudwerk have been brewing beer since 1989 and make some pretty incredible stuff. Sudwerk make clean, traditional styles, but also know how to brew really complex stuff like sours and bourbon barrel-aged doppelbock. We were really impressed by the quality of the beers on the show. It goes without saying that if you see Sudwerk brews on the shelf, give them a try!

]]>Season 3, Episode 42 – This week on the show, beers from Sudwerk Brewing Co. out of Davis, California.

This week we’re featuring a brewery that all of us on the podcast seem to have unintentionally overlooked over the years, Sudwerk Brewing Co.. Turns out, Sudwerk make some really great beer that most definitely should not be overlooked or taken for granted.

Sudwerk Brewing Co. Beers

The beers on this week’s episode were provided to us by Sudwerk. We met up with them during the California Craft Beer Summit last month. They had previously expressed online how stoked they were about ranking second in our blind Pilsner Showdown, and when we ran into KB Brandl (Sudwerk’s Events and Marketing Coordinator) she insisted that we try more of their beer on the show. Sounded good to us!

Sudwerk sent us five beers for the show this week, three of which are part of their “Brewers Cut Reserve Series“. Turns out, Sudwerk have been brewing beer since 1989 and make some pretty incredible stuff. Sudwerk make clean, traditional styles, but also know how to brew really complex stuff like sours and bourbon barrel-aged doppelbock. We were really impressed by the quality of the beers on the show. It goes without saying that if you see Sudwerk brews on the shelf, give them a try!

Fresh off the The 4B Flight and fresh off the plane from the Great American Beer Festival (just Matt, that is) we’re back with another full-length episode of Four Brewers and we’re drinking as many GABF medal-winning beers as we could get our hands on.

GABF 2016 Winners!

We’ve gushed about the Great American Beer Festival in previous episodes (2014, 2015), so we won’t get into the event itself too much in this post, but suffice it to say, it’s definitely one of the biggest and best beer festivals in the world. Thousands of eager beer drinkers descend upon The Mile High City of Denver, Colorado for three days of craft beer tasting and celebration. If ever a beer event were to appear on a beer drinker’s bucket list of events, GABF would be at the top of that list.

Matt Becker Wearing His Bronze Medal from GABF

There is one thing that made this year’s Great American Beer Festival stand out from previous years for the Four Brewers. Our very own Matt Becker, brewer at Packinghouse Brewing Company in Riverside, California brought home his very first medal from GABF—a bronze for his Irish-style Rad Ale (see what I did there?), Riley’s Irish Red. It was a proud moment for us, watching Matt walk onto the stage to accept his medal from Mr. Charlie Papazian. We’re super-proud of him! Congratulations, Matt and Packinghouse! Riverside REPRESENT!

Fresh off the The 4B Flight and fresh off the plane from the Great American Beer Festival (just Matt, that is) we’re back with another full-length episode of Four Brewers and we’re drinking as many GABF medal-winning beers as we could get our hands on.

GABF 2016 Winners!

We’ve gushed about the Great American Beer Festival in previous episodes (2014, 2015), so we won’t get into the event itself too much in this post, but suffice it to say, it’s definitely one of the biggest and best beer festivals in the world. Thousands of eager beer drinkers descend upon The Mile High City of Denver, Colorado for three days of craft beer tasting and celebration. If ever a beer event were to appear on a beer drinker’s bucket list of events, GABF would be at the top of that list.

Matt Becker Wearing His Bronze Medal from GABF

There is one thing that made this year’s Great American Beer Festival stand out from previous years for the Four Brewers. Our very own Matt Becker, brewer at Packinghouse Brewing Company in Riverside, California brought home his very first medal from GABF—a bronze for his Irish-style Rad Ale (see what I did there?), Riley’s Irish Red. It was a proud moment for us, watching Matt walk onto the stage to accept his medal from Mr. Charlie Papazian. We’re super-proud of him! Congratulations, Matt and Packinghouse! Riverside REPRESENT!

The 4B Flight is a biannual series in which we do one standard episode of Four Brewers, followed by six mini episodes for an entire week! The 4B Flight is served up in April and October. Enjoy!

Welcome to the Autumn edition of The 4B Flight! Due to the flight’s immense popularity back in April, we decided to serve up another round of episodes!

Feral One (Batch 3)

Today, on the final day of The 4B Flight, 2.0, we’re going out with a sour bang with Firestone Walker’s Feral One, Batch 3. On the show, we talk about Firestone Walker’s titratable acidity rating scale, the people behind the scenes at breweries that make all of this incredible craft beer we enjoy possible, and how Firestone Walker seems to never put out a bad beer.

The 4B Flight is a biannual series in which we do one standard episode of Four Brewers, followed by six mini episodes for an entire week! The 4B Flight is served up in April and October. Enjoy!

Welcome to the Autumn edition of The 4B Flight! Due to the flight’s immense popularity back in April, we decided to serve up another round of episodes!

Feral One (Batch 3)

Today, on the final day of The 4B Flight, 2.0, we’re going out with a sour bang with Firestone Walker’s Feral One, Batch 3. On the show, we talk about Firestone Walker’s titratable acidity rating scale, the people behind the scenes at breweries that make all of this incredible craft beer we enjoy possible, and how Firestone Walker seems to never put out a bad beer.

The 4B Flight is a biannual series in which we do one standard episode of Four Brewers, followed by six mini episodes for an entire week! The 4B Flight is served up in April and October. Enjoy!

Welcome to the Autumn edition of The 4B Flight! Due to the flight’s immense popularity back in April, we decided to serve up another round of episodes!

Logsdon Farmhouse Ales – Seizoen

I think it’s safe to say that all four of us, The Four Brewers, equally love saison. Okay, well, maybe Matt loves it just a little bit more than us, but overall, we’re super-fans of the style. Today on The Flight, we’re drinking one of the best American examples to date, Seizoen from Logsdon Farmhouse Ales.

If you want to hear us gush even more about saison, check out our Saison Showdown from Season 2!

The 4B Flight is a biannual series in which we do one standard episode of Four Brewers, followed by six mini episodes for an entire week! The 4B Flight is served up in April and October. Enjoy!

Welcome to the Autumn edition of The 4B Flight! Due to the flight’s immense popularity back in April, we decided to serve up another round of episodes!

Logsdon Farmhouse Ales – Seizoen

I think it’s safe to say that all four of us, The Four Brewers, equally love saison. Okay, well, maybe Matt loves it just a little bit more than us, but overall, we’re super-fans of the style. Today on The Flight, we’re drinking one of the best American examples to date, Seizoen from Logsdon Farmhouse Ales.

If you want to hear us gush even more about saison, check out our Saison Showdown from Season 2!

The 4B Flight is a biannual series in which we do one standard episode of Four Brewers, followed by six mini episodes for an entire week! The 4B Flight is served up in April and October. Enjoy!

Welcome to the Autumn edition of The 4B Flight! Due to the flight’s immense popularity back in April, we decided to serve up another round of episodes!

Vicaris Tripel-Gueuze

The beer on today’s episode was…different, and a bit odd. Rather than try to describe it here, just read what the brewery says about it on Untappd:

"Vicaris Tripel and Girardin Gueuze create a new style.. a melding of Tripel sweetness and Lambic sour. Innovative Dilewyns pairs up with one of Belgium’s most prized lambic producers. Really a taste sensation. Here’s the future of Belgian brewing in a glass. Made by a talented home brewer whose beers were extremely well received in Belgium. Brouwerij Dilewyns opened in 2011 and is Belgium’s newest brewery. Led by 24 year old dynamo, Anne- Catherine Dilewyns."

]]>The 4B Flight 2.0, Episode 4 – Today on The 4B Flight, a gueuze that’s actually a blend of two different styles of beer that maybe shouldn’t have been blended together.

The 4B Flight is a biannual series in which we do one standard episode of Four Brewers, followed by six mini episodes for an entire week! The 4B Flight is served up in April and October. Enjoy!

Welcome to the Autumn edition of The 4B Flight! Due to the flight’s immense popularity back in April, we decided to serve up another round of episodes!

Vicaris Tripel-Gueuze

The beer on today’s episode was…different, and a bit odd. Rather than try to describe it here, just read what the brewery says about it on Untappd:

"Vicaris Tripel and Girardin Gueuze create a new style.. a melding of Tripel sweetness and Lambic sour. Innovative Dilewyns pairs up with one of Belgium’s most prized lambic producers. Really a taste sensation. Here’s the future of Belgian brewing in a glass. Made by a talented home brewer whose beers were extremely well received in Belgium. Brouwerij Dilewyns opened in 2011 and is Belgium’s newest brewery. Led by 24 year old dynamo, Anne- Catherine Dilewyns."

The 4B Flight is a biannual series in which we do one standard episode of Four Brewers, followed by six mini episodes for an entire week! The 4B Flight is served up in April and October. Enjoy!

Welcome to the Autumn edition of The 4B Flight! Due to the flight’s immense popularity back in April, we decided to serve up another round of episodes!

Beachwood Blendery – Fortune Favors the Funk

Beachwood BBQ & Brewing’s funky shoot-off, Beachwood Blendery, has finally reached peak propagation and is finally releasing their interpretation of Belgian-style funky ales. Some might call these beers their interpretations of Belgian lambic, but we’re not going to say that here (they would prefer the term lambic not be used). What we will say is that this beer is spectacular. Beachwood destroys. What can’t they do at this point?! (Make bad beer, that’s what.)

The 4B Flight is a biannual series in which we do one standard episode of Four Brewers, followed by six mini episodes for an entire week! The 4B Flight is served up in April and October. Enjoy!

Welcome to the Autumn edition of The 4B Flight! Due to the flight’s immense popularity back in April, we decided to serve up another round of episodes!

Beachwood Blendery – Fortune Favors the Funk

Beachwood BBQ & Brewing’s funky shoot-off, Beachwood Blendery, has finally reached peak propagation and is finally releasing their interpretation of Belgian-style funky ales. Some might call these beers their interpretations of Belgian lambic, but we’re not going to say that here (they would prefer the term lambic not be used). What we will say is that this beer is spectacular. Beachwood destroys. What can’t they do at this point?! (Make bad beer, that’s what.)

The 4B Flight is a biannual series in which we do one standard episode of Four Brewers, followed by six mini episodes for an entire week! The 4B Flight is served up in April and October. Enjoy!

Welcome to the Autumn edition of The 4B Flight! Due to the flight’s immense popularity back in April, we decided to serve up another round of episodes!

Unsung Brewing Co. – Anthia IPA

Unsung Brewing Co. is one of Anaheim’s newest breweries, recently opening to much fanfare and busting through the gate with some excellent brews and awesome comic book-style branding. Today’s beer, Anthia, is a lemony melon bomb that’s heavily late hopped with notes of weeds and grass. A truly unique beer from a great Orange County brewery that, at this point, shows a lot of promise.

The 4B Flight is a biannual series in which we do one standard episode of Four Brewers, followed by six mini episodes for an entire week! The 4B Flight is served up in April and October. Enjoy!

Welcome to the Autumn edition of The 4B Flight! Due to the flight’s immense popularity back in April, we decided to serve up another round of episodes!

Unsung Brewing Co. – Anthia IPA

Unsung Brewing Co. is one of Anaheim’s newest breweries, recently opening to much fanfare and busting through the gate with some excellent brews and awesome comic book-style branding. Today’s beer, Anthia, is a lemony melon bomb that’s heavily late hopped with notes of weeds and grass. A truly unique beer from a great Orange County brewery that, at this point, shows a lot of promise.

The 4B Flight is a biannual series in which we do one standard episode of Four Brewers, followed by six mini episodes for an entire week! The 4B Flight is served up in April and October. Enjoy!

Welcome to the Autumn edition of The 4B Flight! Due to the flight’s immense popularity back in April, we decided to serve up another round of episodes!

Encore Series: 02.02.02 Vertical Epic Ale

Today, we’re going back in time to 2002 with Stone Brewing Co.’s Encore series of their Vertical Epic Ale 02.02.02. This beer was widely considered to be a whale up until about 2013, with prices for a single bottle reaching $1500+. Since many of the newer beer geeks of late never got to try the now 14 year old original brew when it was fresh, Stone decided to brew it again. What a great idea! Thanks, Stone! You’re the best!

The 4B Flight is a biannual series in which we do one standard episode of Four Brewers, followed by six mini episodes for an entire week! The 4B Flight is served up in April and October. Enjoy!

Welcome to the Autumn edition of The 4B Flight! Due to the flight’s immense popularity back in April, we decided to serve up another round of episodes!

Encore Series: 02.02.02 Vertical Epic Ale

Today, we’re going back in time to 2002 with Stone Brewing Co.’s Encore series of their Vertical Epic Ale 02.02.02. This beer was widely considered to be a whale up until about 2013, with prices for a single bottle reaching $1500+. Since many of the newer beer geeks of late never got to try the now 14 year old original brew when it was fresh, Stone decided to brew it again. What a great idea! Thanks, Stone! You’re the best!

The gueuze showdown was inevitable, really. I mean, IPA, stout, and pilsner showdowns are all good and well, but a gueuze showdown is really hard to pull off. Since “sour beers” have been all the rage for the last ten years or so (at least from our limited perspective), it seemed natural to put on our big-boy pants and get to the real deal: gueuze-style beer and lambic.

The Gueuze Showdown

As always, this showdown is by no means a definitive list or ranking. Many beers were left out of this showdown simply because we couldn’t get them. Gueuze is a tough style to nail for many breweries and blenderies, as is evident in this showdown. Making a great gueuze is tough, and they’re equally hard to acquire. We tried to get as many quality gueuze-style beers as we could find, so don’t get butt-hurt because we didn’t include your favorite.

It should also be noted that John was the proctor for this showdown. He served up the beers and participated in the ranking, but the final scores on this showdown do not take his scores into account, since he knew what the beers were upon evaluation.

Here are the beers that we sampled in the showdown, listed in the order they were served:

This is a gueuze that seems to be readily available in most mid to high-end bottle shops. For myself (John), it’s one of the first of the style that I got my hands on. Unfortunately, we thought this beer was the worst of the group, with very prominent notes of acetone.

#12 Mikkeller – Hues Average Score: 40.67

Mikkeller – Hues

This beer was weird. It was the darkest of the group. It came off with really big caramel notes, similar to something like an amber ale or stout, but it was also sour. While sour stouts and amber ales are totally a thing, this beer just came off, well, gross. Overall, it was an awkward experience for all but Greg, who gave it a 70 for some reason…

#11 Brasserie Cantillon – Gueuze 100% Lambic Bio Average Score: 41.67

Brasserie Cantillon – Gueuze 100% Lambic Bio

It goes without saying that it’s both surprising and disappointing that Cantillon ranked so low. The acetone notes were really distracting and the beer came off as very one-note. It also displayed acetic characteristics on the nose that John picked up. We truly think that this was either a bad bottle or bad batch because Cantillon usually never fails to deliver quality gueuze.

#10 Hanssens Artisanaal – Oude Gueuze Average Score: 61.00

Hanssens Artisanaal – Oude Gueuze

This is one of the more recognizable brands of gueuze that one can find. While Hanssens hit the target with this beer’s acidic notes, the solvent-like nose and lack of a funky backbone drove this beer to the bottom half of the list.

This beer was super-tart, and was described by Nagel as a “funky, Sour Warhead [candy]”. Notes of honey and soil were prominent, and while everyone else gave this beer lower scores, John really seemed to like it and gave it a 78.

For us, Tilquin Gueuze is one of the harder to find beers of the group. While the beer was fairly complex, displaying notes of hay, grass, funk, and oak, it was also a bit aggressive in those areas. Matt noted that it smelled like acetone, and Jason though it smelled like an old log. It brought the sour and funk, but the other aspects of the beer were too distracting.

#7 Brouwerij Boon – Oude Geuze Boon Black Label Average Score: 73.00

Brouwerij Boon – Oude Geuze Boon Black Label

Middle of the road. That’s what this beer is. While it was a bit watery and underwhelming, it wasn’t a total let down. Jason didn’t want to take points away for its subtleness, but in the end it just didn’t hit all the right notes.

#6 The Bruery – Rueuze Average Score: 75.67

The Bruery – Rueuze

This beer was immediately pointed out as an American interpretation of gueuze. Notes of vanilla and oak were prominent. There was a lovely sour bite to it, with fruit and citrus notes backing it up. While it wasn’t necessarily true to the gueuze style, Rueuze stood out as a unique and ambitious beer that was both delicious and interesting.

#5 Brouwerij Lindemans – Oude Gueuze Cuvée René Average Score: 80.00

Brouwerij Lindemans – Oude Gueuze Cuvée René

This was the first beer served in the showdown, and that was on purpose. Lindemans gueuze is a great example of the style that is widely available, even at big box stores like Total Wine and More, and BevMo. The beer had an aggressive, funky nose and a nice tart acidic flavor to back it up. It ultimately lost points for being a bit skunked, but hey, it’s in a green bottle so, it’s to be expected. Overall, it’s a great example of the style and definitely worth picking up.

#4 Brouwerij Boon – Oude Geuze Average Score: 85.33

Brouwerij Boon – Oude Geuze

Overall, this beer was great. Notes of sesame seed, and funky bread were prominent, and the flavor was bright and tart with a touch of tannin. A classic gueuze and again, well worth the buy.

#3 The Lost Abbey – Duck Duck Gooze (2016) Average Score: 88.00

The Lost Abbey – Duck Duck Gooze (2016)

Duck Duck Gooze was the most pale in color of the group. Notes of fruit, hibiscus, and acidity were quite lovely on the nose, and the beer had a big fluffy head. The acidity on the palate was subdued and balanced. While we thought it may not be 100% true the style, it was definitely one of the best, even at $40+ per bottle.

Notes of cheese (yum), funk, and earthiness were prominent in Gueuze 1882. The beer had a nice clarity, a subtle funk backbone, and a pleasant, tart bite. It was an overall well balanced and delicious beer and its high ranking was not a surprise at all.

#1 Brouwerij 3 Fonteinen – Oude Geuze Average Score: 93.33

Brouwerij 3 Fonteinen – Oude Geuze

3 Fonteinen ranking number one in the showdown came as no surprise to any of us. Matt constantly gushes over the quality lambic blends that this blendery produces, and Oude Geuze was no exception. This was a stellar beer. The grassy, barnyard notes were balanced with a refreshing sour-citrus flavor and funky base that was nothing short of spectacular. If you see this beer, buy it.

The gueuze showdown was inevitable, really. I mean, IPA, stout, and pilsner showdowns are all good and well, but a gueuze showdown is really hard to pull off. Since “sour beers” have been all the rage for the last ten years or so (at least from our limited perspective), it seemed natural to put on our big-boy pants and get to the real deal: gueuze-style beer and lambic.

The Gueuze Showdown

As always, this showdown is by no means a definitive list or ranking. Many beers were left out of this showdown simply because we couldn’t get them. Gueuze is a tough style to nail for many breweries and blenderies, as is evident in this showdown. Making a great gueuze is tough, and they’re equally hard to acquire. We tried to get as many quality gueuze-style beers as we could find, so don’t get butt-hurt because we didn’t include your favorite.

It should also be noted that John was the proctor for this showdown. He served up the beers and participated in the ranking, but the final scores on this showdown do not take his scores into account, since he knew what the beers were upon evaluation.

Here are the beers that we sampled in the showdown, listed in the order they were served:

This is a gueuze that seems to be readily available in most mid to high-end bottle shops. For myself (John), it’s one of the first of the style that I got my hands on. Unfortunately, we thought this beer was the worst of the group, with very prominent notes of acetone.

#12 Mikkeller – Hues Average Score: 40.67

Mikkeller – Hues

This beer was weird. It was the darkest of the group. It came off with really big caramel notes, similar to something like an amber ale or stout, but it was also sour. While sour stouts and amber ales are totally a thing, this beer just came off, well, gross. Overall, it was an awkward experience for all but Greg, who gave it a 70 for some reason…

#11 Brasserie Cantillon – Gueuze 100% Lambic Bio Average Score: 41.67

Brasserie Cantillon – Gueuze 100% Lambic Bio

It goes without saying that it’s both surprising and disappointing that Cantillon ranked so low. The acetone notes were really distracting and the beer came off as very one-note. It also displayed acetic characteristics on the nose that John picked up. We truly think that this was either a bad bottle or bad batch because Cantillon usually never fails to deliver quality gueuze.

#10 Hanssens Artisanaal – Oude Gueuze Average Score: 61.00

Hanssens Artisanaal – Oude Gueuze

This is one of the more recognizable brands of gueuze that one can find. While Hanssens hit the target with this beer’s acidic notes, the solvent-like nose and lack of a funky backbone drove this beer to the bottom half of the list.

This beer was super-tart, and was described by Nagel as a “funky, Sour Warhead [candy]”. Notes of honey and soil were prominent, and while everyone else gave this beer lower scores, John really seemed to like it and gave it a 78.

For us, Tilquin Gueuze is one of the harder to find beers of the group. While the beer was fairly complex, displaying notes of hay, grass, funk, and oak, it was also a bit aggressive in those areas. Matt noted that it smelled like acetone, and Jason though it smelled like an old log. It brought the sour and funk, but the other aspects of the beer were too distracting.

#7 Brouwerij Boon – Oude Geuze Boon Black Label Average Score: 73.00

Brouwerij Boon – Oude Geuze Boon Black Label

Middle of the road. That’s what this beer is. While it was a bit watery and underwhelming, it wasn’t a total let down. Jason didn’t want to take points away for its subtleness, but in the end it just didn’t hit all the right notes.

#6 The Bruery – Rueuze Average Score: 75.67

The Bruery – Rueuze

This beer was immediately pointed out as an American interpretation of gueuze. Notes of vanilla and oak were prominent. There was a lovely sour bite to it, with fruit and citrus notes backing it up. While it wasn’t necessarily true to the gueuze style, Rueuze stood out as a unique and ambitious beer that was both delicious and interesting.

#5 Brouwerij Lindemans – Oude Gueuze Cuvée René Average Score: 80.00

Brouwerij Lindemans – Oude Gueuze Cuvée René

This was the first beer served in the showdown, and that was on purpose. Lindemans gueuze is a great example of the style that is widely available, even at big box stores like Total Wine and More, and BevMo. The beer had an aggressive, funky nose and a nice tart acidic flavor to back it up. It ultimately lost points for being a bit skunked, but hey, it’s in a green bottle so, it’s to be expected. Overall, it’s a great example of the style and definitely worth picking up.

#4 Brouwerij Boon – Oude Geuze Average Score: 85.33

Brouwerij Boon – Oude Geuze

Overall, this beer was great. Notes of sesame seed, and funky bread were prominent, and the flavor was bright and tart with a touch of tannin. A classic gueuze and again, well worth the buy.

#3 The Lost Abbey – Duck Duck Gooze (2016) Average Score: 88.00

The Lost Abbey – Duck Duck Gooze (2016)

Duck Duck Gooze was the most pale in color of the group. Notes of fruit, hibiscus, and acidity were quite lovely on the nose, and the beer had a big fluffy head. The acidity on the palate was subdued and balanced. While we thought it may not be 100% true the style, it was definitely one of the best, even at $40+ per bottle.

Notes of cheese (yum), funk, and earthiness were prominent in Gueuze 1882. The beer had a nice clarity, a subtle funk backbone, and a pleasant, tart bite. It was an overall well balanced and delicious beer and its high ranking was not a surprise at all.

#1 Brouwerij 3 Fonteinen – Oude Geuze Average Score: 93.33

Brouwerij 3 Fonteinen – Oude Geuze

3 Fonteinen ranking number one in the showdown came as no surprise to any of us. Matt constantly gushes over the quality lambic blends that this blendery produces, and Oude Geuze was no exception. This was a stellar beer. The grassy, barnyard notes were balanced with a refreshing sour-citrus flavor and funky base that was nothing short of spectacular. If you see this beer, buy it.

Fresh off of our epic road trip to Sacramento for the California Craft Beer Summit, Jason was greeted with a box o’ brew from Four Brewers listener and Patreon Supporter, Max Peltier. Max originally wanted to send us some brew for Cheap Beer Corner, which he did (thanks!), but decided to balance things out with what turned out to be some really, really tasty craft beers.

Beers from Chicago!

The beers on the show this week range from farmhouse ales to double IPA. The mix of styles made for a refreshing tasting session, and since it was the first episode of session 42, it was welcomed. We can’t thank Max enough for the brews and the support on Patreon!

]]>Season 3, Episode 39 – We’re back in the studio this week, and we’re drinking some excellent beers from Chicagoland breweries!

Fresh off of our epic road trip to Sacramento for the California Craft Beer Summit, Jason was greeted with a box o’ brew from Four Brewers listener and Patreon Supporter, Max Peltier. Max originally wanted to send us some brew for Cheap Beer Corner, which he did (thanks!), but decided to balance things out with what turned out to be some really, really tasty craft beers.

Beers from Chicago!

The beers on the show this week range from farmhouse ales to double IPA. The mix of styles made for a refreshing tasting session, and since it was the first episode of session 42, it was welcomed. We can’t thank Max enough for the brews and the support on Patreon!

This week’s post was written in collaboration with the lovely Yvonne England.

Hey y’all! Guess that we did?! We went to Sacramento! (Have you watched our road trip video yet?)

Make Beer Clear Again…

This week, we went to the California Craft Beer Summit and had the opportunity to talk to a bunch of amazing beer people on the floor of the event. There were so many great breweries and beer peeps in attendance. We couldn’t talk to them all, but we know you’ll love the folks we did get!

Then we dropped acid…knowledge with Jeffers Richardson, of Firestone Walker Barrelworks, and learned what the hell Titratable Acidity is. Yeah, that’s a thing, and Jeffers explains it.

We then interviewed Brandon Hernández, Chief Marketing Officer at Societe Brewing Company and Editor at Large of West Coaster Magazine, not to be confused with West Coasters Magazine, the best roller coaster review you’ll ever read!

Patrick Rue of The Bruery and Henry Nguyen of Monkish Brewing Company

Next you hear us with Patrick Rue, from The Bruery. Our SoCal duders will know this fine gentleman from his tiny little start-up in the OC. Just kidding! It’s one of the fastest growing breweries around…AND our own Matt Becker used to brew there!

Natalie Cilurzo, President of Russian River Brewing Company, also graced us with an interview. It was so dope! She was dope! Get ready for dopeness! (b-t dubs, the Russian River sour pilsner that was on tap at the festival was DOPE. SO. MUCH. DOPENESS.)

Finally, we interviewed the wonderfully brilliant and knowledgable Julia Herz, of the Brewers Association. Julia knows her shit when it comes to the brewing industry, and also knows a thing or two about pairing beer with food. She even wrote a book about it!

Beer Geeks!

We had a blast at the California Craft Beer Summit. Like, for real. The expo was great and the fest on Saturday was well run with many spectacular California breweries pouring their brews. It was also really cool being literally down the street from the California State Capitol, drinking California craft brews! It was a fun road trip, followed by fun times with awesome beer people. We hope you enjoy these interviews as much as we did.

]]>Season 3, Episode 38 – This week, we’re on the floor of the expo at the California Craft Beer Summit in Sacramento, California, talking to some rad beer industry peeps. This week’s post was written in collaboration with the lovely Yvonne England.

Hey y’all! Guess that we did?! We went to Sacramento! (Have you watched our road trip video yet?)

Make Beer Clear Again…

This week, we went to the California Craft Beer Summit and had the opportunity to talk to a bunch of amazing beer people on the floor of the event. There were so many great breweries and beer peeps in attendance. We couldn’t talk to them all, but we know you’ll love the folks we did get!

Then we dropped acid…knowledge with Jeffers Richardson, of Firestone Walker Barrelworks, and learned what the hell Titratable Acidity is. Yeah, that’s a thing, and Jeffers explains it.

We then interviewed Brandon Hernández, Chief Marketing Officer at Societe Brewing Company and Editor at Large of West Coaster Magazine, not to be confused with West Coasters Magazine, the best roller coaster review you’ll ever read!

Patrick Rue of The Bruery and Henry Nguyen of Monkish Brewing Company

Next you hear us with Patrick Rue, from The Bruery. Our SoCal duders will know this fine gentleman from his tiny little start-up in the OC. Just kidding! It’s one of the fastest growing breweries around…AND our own Matt Becker used to brew there!

Natalie Cilurzo, President of Russian River Brewing Company, also graced us with an interview. It was so dope! She was dope! Get ready for dopeness! (b-t dubs, the Russian River sour pilsner that was on tap at the festival was DOPE. SO. MUCH. DOPENESS.)

Finally, we interviewed the wonderfully brilliant and knowledgable Julia Herz, of the Brewers Association. Julia knows her shit when it comes to the brewing industry, and also knows a thing or two about pairing beer with food. She even wrote a book about it!

Beer Geeks!

We had a blast at the California Craft Beer Summit. Like, for real. The expo was great and the fest on Saturday was well run with many spectacular California breweries pouring their brews. It was also really cool being literally down the street from the California State Capitol, drinking California craft brews! It was a fun road trip, followed by fun times with awesome beer people. We hope you enjoy these interviews as much as we did.

]]>01:13:37yes[S3/E37] Road Trip to SacramentoMon, 12 Sep 2016 00:31:11 +0000Season 3, Episode 37 – This week, we’re heading up to the California Craft Beer Summit and making a few stops along the way.

The 2016 California Craft Beer Summit is upon us! But, before get into the nitty gritty of the event, we’re driving up to Sacramento and making some stops along the way to pick up some beers from California breweries that we normally wouldn’t have access to. Erin Peters from The Beer Goddess also joins us in our makeshift hotel room studio in beautiful downtown Sacramento, California.

Beers from California

California is the largest state in the United States of America, and is home to approximately 600 breweries. According to the Brewers Association, approximately 95% of beer brewed in California in 2015 was sold in California. That’s a lot of beer, and the Brewers Association says there’s still room for more breweries. That’s pretty exciting.

The beers on the show this week cover a pretty large swath of California. We made stops in Bakersfield at Lengthwise Brewing Company, Fresno at Tioga-Sequoia Craft Brewery, and Turlock at Dust Bowl Brewery. While these breweries are all geographically in California, the beers they brew are unique to their respective markets, making for a deliciously diverse group of beers for this week’s show.

It should be noted that we kicked off the show this week with Union Craft Brewing’s Old Pro gose, which was sent to us by Four Brewers listener Jason Evans. We meant to include it on our gose show, but it got lost in the mix. Sorry about that, Jason! The beer was great!

Also, be on the lookout on our YouTube channel for the the vlog we made documenting the trip up!

]]>Season 3, Episode 37 – This week, we’re heading up to the California Craft Beer Summit and making a few stops along the way.

The 2016 California Craft Beer Summit is upon us! But, before get into the nitty gritty of the event, we’re driving up to Sacramento and making some stops along the way to pick up some beers from California breweries that we normally wouldn’t have access to. Erin Peters from The Beer Goddess also joins us in our makeshift hotel room studio in beautiful downtown Sacramento, California.

Beers from California

California is the largest state in the United States of America, and is home to approximately 600 breweries. According to the Brewers Association, approximately 95% of beer brewed in California in 2015 was sold in California. That’s a lot of beer, and the Brewers Association says there’s still room for more breweries. That’s pretty exciting.

The beers on the show this week cover a pretty large swath of California. We made stops in Bakersfield at Lengthwise Brewing Company, Fresno at Tioga-Sequoia Craft Brewery, and Turlock at Dust Bowl Brewery. While these breweries are all geographically in California, the beers they brew are unique to their respective markets, making for a deliciously diverse group of beers for this week’s show.

It should be noted that we kicked off the show this week with Union Craft Brewing’s Old Pro gose, which was sent to us by Four Brewers listener Jason Evans. We meant to include it on our gose show, but it got lost in the mix. Sorry about that, Jason! The beer was great!

Also, be on the lookout on our YouTube channel for the the vlog we made documenting the trip up!

This week on the show, we’re drinking beers from Four Brewers listener Andy Richter. Andy originally asked us for a bottle of The Bruery’sImperial Cabinet to trade for something local to him. John, being the awesome and giving individual that he is, told Andy that he’d send him a bottle for “free” (no trade required) just because that’s how John is (Did I mentionwe, mention that John is the shiz?!). In return, Andy sent a plethora of awesome midwest beers. Now, we’re drinking ’em!

Season 3, Episode 36 Beers

Big thanks to Andy for the beers! They were all pretty big gets for us, and while Side Projectand 2nd Shift Brewing were clearly on top, a standard like Spotted Cow from New Glarusalso got us pretty amped up.

This week on the show, we’re drinking beers from Four Brewers listener Andy Richter. Andy originally asked us for a bottle of The Bruery’sImperial Cabinet to trade for something local to him. John, being the awesome and giving individual that he is, told Andy that he’d send him a bottle for “free” (no trade required) just because that’s how John is (Did I mentionwe, mention that John is the shiz?!). In return, Andy sent a plethora of awesome midwest beers. Now, we’re drinking ’em!

Season 3, Episode 36 Beers

Big thanks to Andy for the beers! They were all pretty big gets for us, and while Side Projectand 2nd Shift Brewing were clearly on top, a standard like Spotted Cow from New Glarusalso got us pretty amped up.

Another week, another awesome homebrew from Jason. We could get used to this! He’s on a bit of a roll actually, honing his skills on newly upgraded brewing setup and making his versions of New England IPA. His latest brew turned out to be a session IPA. Damn mash efficiency! But, before we get to the homebrew, we’ve got some cans fresh off the line from Almanac Beer Company, and four questions in the 4B Mailbag.

Beers from Almanac and Modern Times

Yeast is THE most important component of beer. Well, fermentables for the yeast to consume are also important, but, yeast is priority one. Poor yeast health and viability can completely ruin an otherwise great beer. Three of the four questions in the mailbag pertain to yeast, two of which are specific to lager yeast.

The topic of yeast leads right into Jason’s latest beer, his New England session (accidental) IPA called, Mirkwood. The brewday for this beer went relatively well, outside of Jason’s poor wort efficiency. We get into why that may have been, how to fix it, and how important mineral additions are to the finished brew. Jason’s mash pH was also a bit on the low side, around 4.7, (normally, most homebrewers experience pH readings that are too high, which is easy to fix in most cases) and we discuss how to raise it using said mineral additions.

We finish up with the latest “juicy” release from Modern Times Beer, Attack Frequency. Opinions about this beer are mixed among the group, but all agree that Jason’s brew definitely killed in comparison to this beer. Jason-1, Modem Tones-0. That’s our boy!

Another week, another awesome homebrew from Jason. We could get used to this! He’s on a bit of a roll actually, honing his skills on newly upgraded brewing setup and making his versions of New England IPA. His latest brew turned out to be a session IPA. Damn mash efficiency! But, before we get to the homebrew, we’ve got some cans fresh off the line from Almanac Beer Company, and four questions in the 4B Mailbag.

Beers from Almanac and Modern Times

Yeast is THE most important component of beer. Well, fermentables for the yeast to consume are also important, but, yeast is priority one. Poor yeast health and viability can completely ruin an otherwise great beer. Three of the four questions in the mailbag pertain to yeast, two of which are specific to lager yeast.

The topic of yeast leads right into Jason’s latest beer, his New England session (accidental) IPA called, Mirkwood. The brewday for this beer went relatively well, outside of Jason’s poor wort efficiency. We get into why that may have been, how to fix it, and how important mineral additions are to the finished brew. Jason’s mash pH was also a bit on the low side, around 4.7, (normally, most homebrewers experience pH readings that are too high, which is easy to fix in most cases) and we discuss how to raise it using said mineral additions.

We finish up with the latest “juicy” release from Modern Times Beer, Attack Frequency. Opinions about this beer are mixed among the group, but all agree that Jason’s brew definitely killed in comparison to this beer. Jason-1, Modem Tones-0. That’s our boy!

]]>01:04:59yes[S3/E34] Into The Great White NorthMon, 22 Aug 2016 02:41:05 +0000Season 3, Episode 34 – This week, we head to Canada via Aaron Champion of Cask Ale LA and drink four excellent craft beers from The Great White North.

This week on the show, we’re joined by our good friend and fellow beer blogger, Aaron Champion, and he brought us some really interesting and delicious craft beer from his recent trip to Canada.

Up until around five or so years ago, Canadian craft beer wasn’t really anything anyone would bat an eye at. A lot of breweries were brewing what was widely thought of as “safe” beers, meaning that they stuck to brewing traditional mainstays in beer. This was obviously not the case with every brewery in Canada, but it was tough to think of more than a few Canadian breweries that were making anything really exciting, different, or even experimental. The beers on the show this week exemplify how the Canadian beer scene is evolving and creating some really awesome beers that Canadians local to these breweries can more easily find.

Canadian Craft Beers

The breweries featured on the show this week are Bellwoods Brewery, Nickel Brook Brewery, Folly Brewpub, and Halo Brewery. Halo Brewery, from Toronto, Ontario, is taking a unique approach to their business model by, in a way, open-sourcing their beer recipes. As homebrewers, this is very exciting and cool, especially if you’re a fan of Halo’s beers and want to brew them yourself. Doing something like this is great for a newly emerging scene. It encourages homebrewers to take more risk and do different things with their homebrew, while at the same time encouraging other breweries to take some cues on recipe design and brewing process. It’s a win for everyone!

Big thanks to Aaron for coming down to our neck of the woods to share these beers. His blog, Cask Ale LA, not only focuses on when and where one can find cask ale in Los Angeles, but also the craft beer scene as a whole. He’s only been in The States since 2013, but he’s already a respected member of the beer scene in Los Angeles and Southern California.

]]>Season 3, Episode 34 – This week, we head to Canada via Aaron Champion of Cask Ale LA and drink four excellent craft beers from The Great White North.

This week on the show, we’re joined by our good friend and fellow beer blogger, Aaron Champion, and he brought us some really interesting and delicious craft beer from his recent trip to Canada.

Up until around five or so years ago, Canadian craft beer wasn’t really anything anyone would bat an eye at. A lot of breweries were brewing what was widely thought of as “safe” beers, meaning that they stuck to brewing traditional mainstays in beer. This was obviously not the case with every brewery in Canada, but it was tough to think of more than a few Canadian breweries that were making anything really exciting, different, or even experimental. The beers on the show this week exemplify how the Canadian beer scene is evolving and creating some really awesome beers that Canadians local to these breweries can more easily find.

Canadian Craft Beers

The breweries featured on the show this week are Bellwoods Brewery, Nickel Brook Brewery, Folly Brewpub, and Halo Brewery. Halo Brewery, from Toronto, Ontario, is taking a unique approach to their business model by, in a way, open-sourcing their beer recipes. As homebrewers, this is very exciting and cool, especially if you’re a fan of Halo’s beers and want to brew them yourself. Doing something like this is great for a newly emerging scene. It encourages homebrewers to take more risk and do different things with their homebrew, while at the same time encouraging other breweries to take some cues on recipe design and brewing process. It’s a win for everyone!

Big thanks to Aaron for coming down to our neck of the woods to share these beers. His blog, Cask Ale LA, not only focuses on when and where one can find cask ale in Los Angeles, but also the craft beer scene as a whole. He’s only been in The States since 2013, but he’s already a respected member of the beer scene in Los Angeles and Southern California.

Last week’s show was pretty epic. We decided the best way to recover from the incredibly awesome 24 beer pilsner showdown was to relax with some easy-drinking gose style beers from breweries around the world. Gose is a style of beer that’s usually low alcohol, a bit on the tart side, and made with salt to give it a dry, brackish feel (get into the finer details of the style here). While on paper this sounds like a disaster of a beer, it’s actually pretty damn refreshing. There’s a surprising variety of gose available to us in the southern California market, so we decided to go for it.

Gose Beer

The thing with gose is that some breweries want to “amp up” the style and add fruit to the beer to give it an even more refreshing and easy-drinking twist. This works sometimes, but adding more stuff to an otherwise shitty base beer makes for an even shittier beer. Kettle souring has become quite popular as of late and while it’s efficient and cuts down on risking brewhouse infection, some breweries don’t put in the proper care during the process to insure a well made kettle sour. Other breweries go the more traditional route and add bacteria to sour the wort after it has been brewed, or after primary fermentation. The beers on this week’s episode pretty much cover the gamut.

We also answer a few questions from The Mailbag and reflect on life with some user-submitted 4B haikus.

]]>Season 3, Episode 33 – This week, we take a ride on the goser coaster and sample nine gose style beers.

Last week’s show was pretty epic. We decided the best way to recover from the incredibly awesome 24 beer pilsner showdown was to relax with some easy-drinking gose style beers from breweries around the world. Gose is a style of beer that’s usually low alcohol, a bit on the tart side, and made with salt to give it a dry, brackish feel (get into the finer details of the style here). While on paper this sounds like a disaster of a beer, it’s actually pretty damn refreshing. There’s a surprising variety of gose available to us in the southern California market, so we decided to go for it.

Gose Beer

The thing with gose is that some breweries want to “amp up” the style and add fruit to the beer to give it an even more refreshing and easy-drinking twist. This works sometimes, but adding more stuff to an otherwise shitty base beer makes for an even shittier beer. Kettle souring has become quite popular as of late and while it’s efficient and cuts down on risking brewhouse infection, some breweries don’t put in the proper care during the process to insure a well made kettle sour. Other breweries go the more traditional route and add bacteria to sour the wort after it has been brewed, or after primary fermentation. The beers on this week’s episode pretty much cover the gamut.

We also answer a few questions from The Mailbag and reflect on life with some user-submitted 4B haikus.

Another 4B Showdown coming at you, this time it’s the Pilsner Showdown 2.0. You might be asking yourself – what happened to the pilsner showdown 1.0? Well we might be asking you to mind your own god damned business. We might also be overcompensating for the fact that we recorded an entire 16 beer showdown that we got so mixed up on which beer number we were on that it ended up incomprehensible. So we did it again. We did it bigger. We did it better. We did it stronger. 16 beers? Not for our fans. We did 24 god damned beers. In a row. And we ranked them. Not in a row. Appropriately for their deliciousness. Or, skunkiness.

The Pilsner Showdown

On that note, we need to preface this by saying that some of the beers in our showdown obviously suffered from age and packaging woes. While we wish this wasn’t the case, it’s also the realistic experience of buying these beers on the shelf. So get your shit together, breweries with green bottles. Especially if you don’t put dates on your bottles.

Of all the German beers in the mix, Warsteiner fared the worst. In fact, it fared the worst of the whole showdown. The nose immediately put everyone off. Gym sock, fusel….none of the aroma notes have won anyone over. Drinking it, we were equally nonplussed. Flavor notes included such illustrious comments as “potting soil”. Being the off flavor patient zero for a funk we’d never experienced before led to incredibly low marks, putting Warsteiner Pils in last place.

#23 Plzeňský Prazdroj – Pilsner Urquell Average Score: 48.00

Plzeňský Prazdroj – Pilsner Urquell

A reference pilsner entered the showdown, and thankfully wasn’t in a green bottle. We thought it looked great, like a bar of GOLD!! Smelling it, we caught diacytel. While that’s to style when it’s “restrained” we thought it was not restrained at all and it really put us off the beer. Matt successfully nailed it and called the beer, but the off flavors put the whole group off enough to rank it one of the lowest in the showdown.

#22 Trumer – Trumer Pils Average Score: 54.50

Trumer – Trumer Pils

Trumer Pils is a heavy hitter in CA, but failed to impress us with a chill haze and a lack of head retention. At the aroma section of the review, Jason was taken aback by the skunky aroma. As a group we’ve had this beer and enjoyed it before (including in Pilsner show 1.0) but ultimately the skunky conditions did it in. This beer was probably a victim of being in a green bottle.

An old school stalwart of the California craft beer scene enters the fray. This one had great clarity, but not great head retention. The color was dark – we thought it might be one of the Czech beers because it was so dark. The nose let out notes of dog, and leather – not what we wanted out of a pilsner. Tasting it, we got ATHP, mousiness, and John thought it wasn’t even a pilsner at all. While we thought the beer was OK, the off flavors and lack of pilsner characteristics led us to call it a non-buy and put it near the bottom of the field.

#20 Speakeasy Ales & Lagers – Pop Gun Pilsner Average Score: 61.75

Speakeasy Ales & Lagers – Pop Gun Pilsner

A newcomer to the pils scene, Speakeasy out of San Francisco has recently started canning their Pop Gun Pils. The beer had a nice head, but the appearance was best described as “dishwater”. The nose divided the group – Jason got soap, Greg got diacytel, and John thought it smelled pretty good! But drinking it we all caught on off flavor we didn’t like. The mouthfeel was off, the bitterness was muted, the malt character was too high and overall we didn’t find it to be a great pils.

In a showdown of similar beers, Staropramen makes itself known. It’s noticably darker and maltier than the rest, bordering on a Vienna Lager or a Marzen. While we mostly liked the beer, it’s breaking from the pilsner style combined with being sort of ho hum and not hitting the main pilsner notes, led us to give it lower marks than some of the competition in this style showdown.

The famous Czechvar, which is the “real” Budweiser that you can only get in the Czech Republic! This one impressed with clarity, but had a thin head that didn’t linger. The nose could only described as “That sweet skunky stuff” which cost the beer points. Drinking it, it had remnants of a good beer but faltered under massive levels of skunk. Another victim of the green bottle curse.

#17 König Brauerei – König Pilsener Average Score: 64.25

König Brauerei – König Pilsener

Narrowly edging out the Czechvar is König Pilsner. König impressed with clarity, but the head and retention left a bit to be desired. There was something funky in the nose – Jason says skunk and Matt says DMS, but we all agree it’s not ideal. It drank well, but the off aroma and some wonkiness in the flavor department led it to low marks overall.

In the Pils Showdown 1.0, Bitburger actually beat the whole field of 16. This pour wowed the group with it’s chandelier-like clarity, but the nose threw Greg off, who caught notes of DMS and old milk. Jason thought it was clean but a bit bland. John caught a weird taste to it. We all declared this Bitburger can as middle of the road or worse, and it finished a bit below the middle of the field.

#15 Krombacher Gruppe – Krombacher Pils Average Score: 73.75

Krombacher Gruppe – Krombacher Pils

Krombacher wowed with it’s clarity. The nose, however gave off seaweed and umami notes. When we drank it, it didn’t really wow us in any way at all. We thought it lacked some of the hop presence that makes a true pilsner, and even compared it more towards and American light lager than the normal pilsner profile we expect. While this beer was clean overall, we didn’t find enough of the pilsner characteristics we were expecting to propel it to greatness.

A whopping .75 points ahead of Krombacher is Avery with Joe’s Pils. While certainly our most Mafia looking can, this beer immediately threw everyone off with how many chunky floaties where flowing around in it. We spent a while trying to figure out why this beer looked more like a lava lamp than a pils. We thought it was citrusy, and got a big American hop presence out of it. We enjoyed it, but thought it was more along the lines of a pale ale or a session lager. Matt thought it had a pilsnery malt profile, but overall the group thought it was out of style pretty significantly and it hurt it in the overall rankings.

#13 Lagunitas Brewing Company – Pils Average Score: 75.50

Lagunitas Brewing Company – Pils

An oft overlooked shelf beer in CA, this one came out and impressed the gang with it’s clarity and the memory foam mesa hanging out on the top. The aroma left a bit for us to be desired, but had a good solid hop presence on the back that salvaged the lack of aroma. All around a good beer but it lost points for being too bitter.

#12 Saint Archer Brewing Company – Hoppy Pilsner Average Score: 79.25

Saint Archer Brewing Company – Hoppy Pilsner

Jumping ahead of Lagunitas by several points, Saint Archer’s Hoppy Pilsner (formerly Girl Skateboard Pilsner). This one came out so cloudy that we were wiping the glass to make sure it wasn’t just fogged up. The aroma had different things to everyone….citrus to Jason and Matt, sulfery farts to Greg. Jason didn’t like the lemony flavor, but John enjoyed the biscuity cracker malt character. We liked it overall, but it lost points on appearance and ended squarely middle of the pack.

Crux obviously didn’t place a high priority on the appearance of the beer, invoking thoughts of an unfiltered Kellerbeir moreso than a pils. We caught a big American hop presence out of it, but we liked it overall. Greg thought it had a pilsner backbone, but John thought it was very bitter. While we really liked this beer, we thought about how you’d feel if you got that ordering a pilsner and it went down a few pegs. Despite these handicaps, Crux finished in the top half of the field and tied with…

Out of the gate, Matt said this beer looked like shit. And he’ll fight anyone who disagrees. The group was split on the nose, some of us finding it muted and some of us liking the nose a lot. On drinking it, we all thought it was a solid example. We liked it overall (especially John) but losing points for appearance and aroma ended up placing Oskar Blues lower than it could have been.

#9 Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. – Nooner Pilsner Average Score: 83.75

Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. – Nooner Pilsner

Edging out the #10 tie buy just half a point, the seasonal standby from one of America’s most respected craft breweries. Sierra Nevada has suffered a bit in our past showdowns. Nooner didn’t come in as a world beater, but in this strong field of pilsners, Nooner made a very respectable showing for itself at #9. The nose wasn’t huge, but the flavor had a very clean, grassy note that got solid marks from the group.

Not surprisingly for Stone, the beer impressed for clarity and had nice head retention. Also not surprisingly for Stone, we immediately caught a huge hop profile out of this beer. Overall the group liked this beer quite a bit, and dinged it for being way overhopped for the style. Matt even went farther to say that it was way out of style, and John considered going full Barry Bonds and asterisking it. But our love of this beer propelled it up to #8 despite being handicapped by all of our minuses for being out of style. Leave it to Stone to make a beer so aggressively out of style that it places in the top 1/3 on pure bravado.

#7 Left Hand Brewing Company – Polestar Pilsner Average Score: 86.00

Left Hand Brewing Company – Polestar Pilsner

This beer had a good head and solid lacing in the glass. The nose was clean, with small hints of herbs and mint. Jason thought this was a clear LiterDrinken beer. Greg and John rated it the highest, with Nagel wishing the hops were dialed in a bit more. Overall, the 4B crew thought this was a very solid pils and it scored well enough to place it at lucky number 7 and a full point and a half ahead of Stone’s egregiously out of style example.

#6 Pizza Port Brewing Co. – Pick Six Pilsner Average Score: 86.25

Pizza Port Brewing Co. – Pick Six Pilsner

Pizza Port makes its first appearance in a 4B showdown. The beer had a nice fluffy head but wasn’t as clear as some of the other more traditional examples. The nose read as fruity and tropical. The group agreed that this one was over the top on American hops, breaking from the mold of what you’d expect on a traditional pilsner. Hophead Jason thought it was a solid example despite (or because of) it’s overuse of American hops and the group in general liked it well enough to propel it near the top of the field and just .25 points higher than the strong showing from Left Hand.

#5 Coronado Brewing Company – Seacoast Pilsner Average Score: 87.00

Coronado Brewing Company – Seacoast Pilsner

This was a bit of a wild card in our showdown, suggested by the beer store and thrown in to even the numbers out. Despite this inauspicious beginning, the beer ended up faring very well in this crowded field. The appearance failed to impress – it wasn’t nearly as clear as the other beers, and didn’t have much of a head at all. On the flavor side, this beer finished clean and brought smiles to the faces of all of the gang. It lost points for looks but got really high marks from everyone except Greg in the flavor department. Greg thought it was soft, and safe. Despite his reservations, Coronado jets into the top 5 with a solid pilsner, even if it’s only .75 points ahead of Pizza Port.

#4 Firestone Walker Brewing Company – Pivo Pils Average Score: 90.50

Firestone Walker Brewing Company – Pivo Pils

Firestone is a time tested heavy hitter (and often winner) in 4B showdowns. Going in, we all expected Pivo to perform well and it did not disappoint. This beer had all of the visuals we wanted in a pils, and we immediately noticed the big American hop character. Jason thought that it managed to take the American hop flavor but still maintan the essence of a pilsner, while Matt thought it was bordering on an IPL. Ultimately, the beer got high marks, suffering only for not being quite traditional but still wowing all of the 4Bs enough to get a fourth place finish.

#3 Victory Brewing Company – Prima Pils Average Score: 93.25

Victory Brewing Company – Prima Pils

Prima Pils was a looker, and despite having had a lot of beer before, we all showed how thirsty we were when we admired this beauty of a pils. Jason’s Darth Vader smells aside, the group thought this beer was exactly where we wanted a pils to be. The words “reference pils” were thrown around liberally. Greg thought it lacked mouthfeel a bit, but overall Prima finished incredibly strong in the field. This beer is often mentioned as a reference for the style (including the BJCP) and it proved it’s providence here with a very high mark.

#2 Sudwerk Brewing Co. – Northern Pilsner Average Score: 96.25

Sudwerk Brewing Co. – Northern Pilsner

The last beer we tasted on a long day was certainly not the least. Sudwerk came out with brilliant clarity, and a nice half finger of head retention. On the nose we caught herbal notes and a bit of oyster cracker maltiness. Jason was impressed by how clean and not aggressive the beer was. But most importantly, we all thought it was really damn good. Greg thought it was a little bit too bitter being the only thing keeping it from perfect in his mind. The tiny reservation from Greg perhaps costing it that all important half point, Sudwerk still catapulted to #2 in our field.

Edging out the #2 beer by only half a point, the world’s oldest brewery comes in with their example of one of the world’s most popular styles. While the head on the beer was pretty mild, this wowed with it’s glowing clarity. The nose also impressed, biscuity, herbal, minty, eucalyptus…and the flavor followed exactly where the nose was leading us. It tasted exactly what we’d expect a pilsner to taste like, and hit all of the right notes expertly. That’s what almost a millenia of experience can do for a brewery! Breaking far ahead of the field of other European pilsners, Weihenstephaner wowed the group (including a perfect 100 from Greg) for the #1 spot!

The Rankings and Scores

So many breweries are making pilsner that this showdown can in no way be considered a definitive list, nor is it an end all, be all ranking. We could have a pilsner showdown once a month for a year and still not even scratch the surface of all the available pilsner out there.

We encourage you to try this with a group of your friends and some pilsner that’s local to you! We say this after every showdown, but it really is fun, and it’s a great way to learn about a specific style of beer.

]]>Season 3, Episode 32 – This week, we’re drinking a brewer’s dozen of pilsner and ranking them, like you do.

Another 4B Showdown coming at you, this time it’s the Pilsner Showdown 2.0. You might be asking yourself – what happened to the pilsner showdown 1.0? Well we might be asking you to mind your own god damned business. We might also be overcompensating for the fact that we recorded an entire 16 beer showdown that we got so mixed up on which beer number we were on that it ended up incomprehensible. So we did it again. We did it bigger. We did it better. We did it stronger. 16 beers? Not for our fans. We did 24 god damned beers. In a row. And we ranked them. Not in a row. Appropriately for their deliciousness. Or, skunkiness.

The Pilsner Showdown

On that note, we need to preface this by saying that some of the beers in our showdown obviously suffered from age and packaging woes. While we wish this wasn’t the case, it’s also the realistic experience of buying these beers on the shelf. So get your shit together, breweries with green bottles. Especially if you don’t put dates on your bottles.

Of all the German beers in the mix, Warsteiner fared the worst. In fact, it fared the worst of the whole showdown. The nose immediately put everyone off. Gym sock, fusel….none of the aroma notes have won anyone over. Drinking it, we were equally nonplussed. Flavor notes included such illustrious comments as “potting soil”. Being the off flavor patient zero for a funk we’d never experienced before led to incredibly low marks, putting Warsteiner Pils in last place.

#23 Plzeňský Prazdroj – Pilsner Urquell Average Score: 48.00

Plzeňský Prazdroj – Pilsner Urquell

A reference pilsner entered the showdown, and thankfully wasn’t in a green bottle. We thought it looked great, like a bar of GOLD!! Smelling it, we caught diacytel. While that’s to style when it’s “restrained” we thought it was not restrained at all and it really put us off the beer. Matt successfully nailed it and called the beer, but the off flavors put the whole group off enough to rank it one of the lowest in the showdown.

#22 Trumer – Trumer Pils Average Score: 54.50

Trumer – Trumer Pils

Trumer Pils is a heavy hitter in CA, but failed to impress us with a chill haze and a lack of head retention. At the aroma section of the review, Jason was taken aback by the skunky aroma. As a group we’ve had this beer and enjoyed it before (including in Pilsner show 1.0) but ultimately the skunky conditions did it in. This beer was probably a victim of being in a green bottle.

An old school stalwart of the California craft beer scene enters the fray. This one had great clarity, but not great head retention. The color was dark – we thought it might be one of the Czech beers because it was so dark. The nose let out notes of dog, and leather – not what we wanted out of a pilsner. Tasting it, we got ATHP, mousiness, and John thought it wasn’t even a pilsner at all. While we thought the beer was OK, the off flavors and lack of pilsner characteristics led us to call it a non-buy and put it near the bottom of the field.

#20 Speakeasy Ales & Lagers – Pop Gun Pilsner Average Score: 61.75

Speakeasy Ales & Lagers – Pop Gun Pilsner

A newcomer to the pils scene, Speakeasy out of San Francisco has recently started canning their Pop Gun Pils. The beer had a nice head, but the appearance was best described as “dishwater”. The nose divided the group – Jason got soap, Greg got diacytel, and John thought it smelled pretty good! But drinking it we all caught on off flavor we didn’t like. The mouthfeel was off, the bitterness was muted, the malt character was too high and overall we didn’t find it to be a great pils.

In a showdown of similar beers, Staropramen makes itself known. It’s noticably darker and maltier than the rest, bordering on a Vienna Lager or a Marzen. While we mostly liked the beer, it’s breaking from the pilsner style combined with being sort of ho hum and not hitting the main pilsner notes, led us to give it lower marks than some of the competition in this style showdown.

The famous Czechvar, which is the “real” Budweiser that you can only get in the Czech Republic! This one impressed with clarity, but had a thin head that didn’t linger. The nose could only described as “That sweet skunky stuff” which cost the beer points. Drinking it, it had remnants of a good beer but faltered under massive levels of skunk. Another victim of the green bottle curse.

#17 König Brauerei – König Pilsener Average Score: 64.25

König Brauerei – König Pilsener

Narrowly edging out the Czechvar is König Pilsner. König impressed with clarity, but the head and retention left a bit to be desired. There was something funky in the nose – Jason says skunk and Matt says DMS, but we all agree it’s not ideal. It drank well, but the off aroma and some wonkiness in the flavor department led it to low marks overall.

In the Pils Showdown 1.0, Bitburger actually beat the whole field of 16. This pour wowed the group with it’s chandelier-like clarity, but the nose threw Greg off, who caught notes of DMS and old milk. Jason thought it was clean but a bit bland. John caught a weird taste to it. We all declared this Bitburger can as middle of the road or worse, and it finished a bit below the middle of the field.

#15 Krombacher Gruppe – Krombacher Pils Average Score: 73.75

Krombacher Gruppe – Krombacher Pils

Krombacher wowed with it’s clarity. The nose, however gave off seaweed and umami notes. When we drank it, it didn’t really wow us in any way at all. We thought it lacked some of the hop presence that makes a true pilsner, and even compared it more towards and American light lager than the normal pilsner profile we expect. While this beer was clean overall, we didn’t find enough of the pilsner characteristics we were expecting to propel it to greatness.

A whopping .75 points ahead of Krombacher is Avery with Joe’s Pils. While certainly our most Mafia looking can, this beer immediately threw everyone off with how many chunky floaties where flowing around in it. We spent a while trying to figure out why this beer looked more like a lava lamp than a pils. We thought it was citrusy, and got a big American hop presence out of it. We enjoyed it, but thought it was more along the lines of a pale ale or a session lager. Matt thought it had a pilsnery malt profile, but overall the group thought it was out of style pretty significantly and it hurt it in the overall rankings.

#13 Lagunitas Brewing Company – Pils Average Score: 75.50

Lagunitas Brewing Company – Pils

An oft overlooked shelf beer in CA, this one came out and impressed the gang with it’s clarity and the memory foam mesa hanging out on the top. The aroma left a bit for us to be desired, but had a good solid hop presence on the back that salvaged the lack of aroma. All around a good beer but it lost points for being too bitter.

#12 Saint Archer Brewing Company – Hoppy Pilsner Average Score: 79.25

Saint Archer Brewing Company – Hoppy Pilsner

Jumping ahead of Lagunitas by several points, Saint Archer’s Hoppy Pilsner (formerly Girl Skateboard Pilsner). This one came out so cloudy that we were wiping the glass to make sure it wasn’t just fogged up. The aroma had different things to everyone….citrus to Jason and Matt, sulfery farts to Greg. Jason didn’t like the lemony flavor, but John enjoyed the biscuity cracker malt character. We liked it overall, but it lost points on appearance and ended squarely middle of the pack.

Crux obviously didn’t place a high priority on the appearance of the beer, invoking thoughts of an unfiltered Kellerbeir moreso than a pils. We caught a big American hop presence out of it, but we liked it overall. Greg thought it had a pilsner backbone, but John thought it was very bitter. While we really liked this beer, we thought about how you’d feel if you got that ordering a pilsner and it went down a few pegs. Despite these handicaps, Crux finished in the top half of the field and tied with…

Out of the gate, Matt said this beer looked like shit. And he’ll fight anyone who disagrees. The group was split on the nose, some of us finding it muted and some of us liking the nose a lot. On drinking it, we all thought it was a solid example. We liked it overall (especially John) but losing points for appearance and aroma ended up placing Oskar Blues lower than it could have been.

#9 Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. – Nooner Pilsner Average Score: 83.75

Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. – Nooner Pilsner

Edging out the #10 tie buy just half a point, the seasonal standby from one of America’s most respected craft breweries. Sierra Nevada has suffered a bit in our past showdowns. Nooner didn’t come in as a world beater, but in this strong field of pilsners, Nooner made a very respectable showing for itself at #9. The nose wasn’t huge, but the flavor had a very clean, grassy note that got solid marks from the group.

Not surprisingly for Stone, the beer impressed for clarity and had nice head retention. Also not surprisingly for Stone, we immediately caught a huge hop profile out of this beer. Overall the group liked this beer quite a bit, and dinged it for being way overhopped for the style. Matt even went farther to say that it was way out of style, and John considered going full Barry Bonds and asterisking it. But our love of this beer propelled it up to #8 despite being handicapped by all of our minuses for being out of style. Leave it to Stone to make a beer so aggressively out of style that it places in the top 1/3 on pure bravado.

#7 Left Hand Brewing Company – Polestar Pilsner Average Score: 86.00

Left Hand Brewing Company – Polestar Pilsner

This beer had a good head and solid lacing in the glass. The nose was clean, with small hints of herbs and mint. Jason thought this was a clear LiterDrinken beer. Greg and John rated it the highest, with Nagel wishing the hops were dialed in a bit more. Overall, the 4B crew thought this was a very solid pils and it scored well enough to place it at lucky number 7 and a full point and a half ahead of Stone’s egregiously out of style example.

#6 Pizza Port Brewing Co. – Pick Six Pilsner Average Score: 86.25

Pizza Port Brewing Co. – Pick Six Pilsner

Pizza Port makes its first appearance in a 4B showdown. The beer had a nice fluffy head but wasn’t as clear as some of the other more traditional examples. The nose read as fruity and tropical. The group agreed that this one was over the top on American hops, breaking from the mold of what you’d expect on a traditional pilsner. Hophead Jason thought it was a solid example despite (or because of) it’s overuse of American hops and the group in general liked it well enough to propel it near the top of the field and just .25 points higher than the strong showing from Left Hand.

#5 Coronado Brewing Company – Seacoast Pilsner Average Score: 87.00

Coronado Brewing Company – Seacoast Pilsner

This was a bit of a wild card in our showdown, suggested by the beer store and thrown in to even the numbers out. Despite this inauspicious beginning, the beer ended up faring very well in this crowded field. The appearance failed to impress – it wasn’t nearly as clear as the other beers, and didn’t have much of a head at all. On the flavor side, this beer finished clean and brought smiles to the faces of all of the gang. It lost points for looks but got really high marks from everyone except Greg in the flavor department. Greg thought it was soft, and safe. Despite his reservations, Coronado jets into the top 5 with a solid pilsner, even if it’s only .75 points ahead of Pizza Port.

#4 Firestone Walker Brewing Company – Pivo Pils Average Score: 90.50

Firestone Walker Brewing Company – Pivo Pils

Firestone is a time tested heavy hitter (and often winner) in 4B showdowns. Going in, we all expected Pivo to perform well and it did not disappoint. This beer had all of the visuals we wanted in a pils, and we immediately noticed the big American hop character. Jason thought that it managed to take the American hop flavor but still maintan the essence of a pilsner, while Matt thought it was bordering on an IPL. Ultimately, the beer got high marks, suffering only for not being quite traditional but still wowing all of the 4Bs enough to get a fourth place finish.

#3 Victory Brewing Company – Prima Pils Average Score: 93.25

Victory Brewing Company – Prima Pils

Prima Pils was a looker, and despite having had a lot of beer before, we all showed how thirsty we were when we admired this beauty of a pils. Jason’s Darth Vader smells aside, the group thought this beer was exactly where we wanted a pils to be. The words “reference pils” were thrown around liberally. Greg thought it lacked mouthfeel a bit, but overall Prima finished incredibly strong in the field. This beer is often mentioned as a reference for the style (including the BJCP) and it proved it’s providence here with a very high mark.

#2 Sudwerk Brewing Co. – Northern Pilsner Average Score: 96.25

Sudwerk Brewing Co. – Northern Pilsner

The last beer we tasted on a long day was certainly not the least. Sudwerk came out with brilliant clarity, and a nice half finger of head retention. On the nose we caught herbal notes and a bit of oyster cracker maltiness. Jason was impressed by how clean and not aggressive the beer was. But most importantly, we all thought it was really damn good. Greg thought it was a little bit too bitter being the only thing keeping it from perfect in his mind. The tiny reservation from Greg perhaps costing it that all important half point, Sudwerk still catapulted to #2 in our field.

Edging out the #2 beer by only half a point, the world’s oldest brewery comes in with their example of one of the world’s most popular styles. While the head on the beer was pretty mild, this wowed with it’s glowing clarity. The nose also impressed, biscuity, herbal, minty, eucalyptus…and the flavor followed exactly where the nose was leading us. It tasted exactly what we’d expect a pilsner to taste like, and hit all of the right notes expertly. That’s what almost a millenia of experience can do for a brewery! Breaking far ahead of the field of other European pilsners, Weihenstephaner wowed the group (including a perfect 100 from Greg) for the #1 spot!

The Rankings and Scores

So many breweries are making pilsner that this showdown can in no way be considered a definitive list, nor is it an end all, be all ranking. We could have a pilsner showdown once a month for a year and still not even scratch the surface of all the available pilsner out there.

We encourage you to try this with a group of your friends and some pilsner that’s local to you! We say this after every showdown, but it really is fun, and it’s a great way to learn about a specific style of beer.

This week on the show, we’re going to Paris, France (via Google Hangouts, of course) to drink some beer with fellow YouTuber and blogger, Nichole Richardson, or as she’s more widely known, Tasting Nitch.

Nichole Richardson, aka Tasting Nitch

Today’s episode really isn’t about the beer more than about Nichole and the beer scene in Europe and France, as well as beer trends in the United States. We also talk about beer reviewers on YouTube, beer blogs, and podcasts.

This Week’s Beers

Nichole has been on YouTube for quite a while. She makes videos about beer news, beer reviews, drinking morning beer and commentary on beer trends and such. We highly recommend checking her YouTube channel out. You can also check out the video of the unedited Hangout with Nitch, if that’s something you would like to watch.

Big thanks to Nichole for hanging out with us. Definitely keep a look out for her on future episodes of Four Brewers.

]]>Season 3, Episode 31 – This week, we’re hanging out with Nichole Richardson, aka Tasting Nitch, all the way from France!

This week on the show, we’re going to Paris, France (via Google Hangouts, of course) to drink some beer with fellow YouTuber and blogger, Nichole Richardson, or as she’s more widely known, Tasting Nitch.

Nichole Richardson, aka Tasting Nitch

Today’s episode really isn’t about the beer more than about Nichole and the beer scene in Europe and France, as well as beer trends in the United States. We also talk about beer reviewers on YouTube, beer blogs, and podcasts.

This Week’s Beers

Nichole has been on YouTube for quite a while. She makes videos about beer news, beer reviews, drinking morning beer and commentary on beer trends and such. We highly recommend checking her YouTube channel out. You can also check out the video of the unedited Hangout with Nitch, if that’s something you would like to watch.

Big thanks to Nichole for hanging out with us. Definitely keep a look out for her on future episodes of Four Brewers.

The Lost Abbey is probably one of the best Belgian-style breweries in the world, creating some of the best saison, wild ale, and barrel-aged beer that money can buy. Today on the show, we’re joined by The Lost Abbey’s (also, Port Brewing Company and The Hop Concept) Head of Brewery Operations, Tomme Arthur. The beers on the show this week represent some of the best qualities of the craft beer movement, from the two collaboration beers that The Lost Abbey brewed with Wicked Weed Brewing and Brasserie Dupont, to the experimental fresh and hoppy Mosaic & Eureka IPA from The Hop Concept.

This Week’s Beers

The Lost Abbey, Port Brewing Company, and The Hop Concept beers all come from the brewhouse within The Lost Abbey. It can be a bit confusing when referring to three different breweries that are technically located under the same roof, but there’s a reason why it’s done this way, which Tomme gets into during the show. The beers that come from these three brands allow the brewery to experiment in different ways without confusing or overloading the consumer. Wouldn’t it be weird if The Lost Abbey made a dank-bomb IPA? Yes, it would be. You can’t really find a bad beer from any of these three brands. Their diversity exemplifies the knowledge and creativity of everyone involved with producing their beer.

Four Brewers with Tomme Arthur

Recording an episode at Port / Lost Abbey / THC was one of the raddest things we’ve ever been able to do as a show. Much thanks to Tomme and the team for putting this show together!

More photos from our visit to Port Brewing / The Lost Abbey can be seen here.

The Lost Abbey is probably one of the best Belgian-style breweries in the world, creating some of the best saison, wild ale, and barrel-aged beer that money can buy. Today on the show, we’re joined by The Lost Abbey’s (also, Port Brewing Company and The Hop Concept) Head of Brewery Operations, Tomme Arthur. The beers on the show this week represent some of the best qualities of the craft beer movement, from the two collaboration beers that The Lost Abbey brewed with Wicked Weed Brewing and Brasserie Dupont, to the experimental fresh and hoppy Mosaic & Eureka IPA from The Hop Concept.

This Week’s Beers

The Lost Abbey, Port Brewing Company, and The Hop Concept beers all come from the brewhouse within The Lost Abbey. It can be a bit confusing when referring to three different breweries that are technically located under the same roof, but there’s a reason why it’s done this way, which Tomme gets into during the show. The beers that come from these three brands allow the brewery to experiment in different ways without confusing or overloading the consumer. Wouldn’t it be weird if The Lost Abbey made a dank-bomb IPA? Yes, it would be. You can’t really find a bad beer from any of these three brands. Their diversity exemplifies the knowledge and creativity of everyone involved with producing their beer.

Four Brewers with Tomme Arthur

Recording an episode at Port / Lost Abbey / THC was one of the raddest things we’ve ever been able to do as a show. Much thanks to Tomme and the team for putting this show together!

More photos from our visit to Port Brewing / The Lost Abbey can be seen here.

]]>49:25yes[S3/E29] Brunching at Mikkeller Brewing, San DiegoMon, 18 Jul 2016 02:24:30 +0000Season 3, Episode 29 – This week on the show, we’re hanging out at Mikkeller Brewing Company in San Diego, California with Head Brewer Bill Batten and Barrel whisperer Daniel Cady.

World renowned gypsy brewer, Mikkel Borg Bjergsø, recently opened a new brewery right here in the United States. Mikkeller is probably one of the best-known gypsy breweries out there, brewing stellar barrel-aged stouts, wild ales, IPA, and more. Opening a permanent brewery in SoCal is pretty huge, not only for Mikeller Brewing Company, but also for beer geeks in the United States.

Mikkeller Brewing Company, San Diego

Opening a brewery in California is no easy task, which is why Mikkel decided to join forces with San Diego’s AleSmith Brewing Company. In fact, Mikkeller Brewing Company is actually in AleSmith’s former brewery, and they even retained AleSmith’s former Head Brewer, Bill Batten. (AleSmith recently opened a brand new brewery minutes from Mikkeller Brewing, so you should check that out, too).

Greg, Jason and Matt with Bill Batten and Daniel Cady (l to r).

Bill and Daniel sat down with us to talk about the origins of Mikkeller Brewing San Diego and shared some of the freshest Mikkeller beer we’ve every had, brewed right here in California.

Needless to say, but expect exciting things from Mikkeller Brewing in San Diego. The beers we had on the show were quite delicious, and the brewery has been open for only three months as of the recording of this podcast. We’re pretty excited for Mikkeller Brewing Company San Diego, and you should be, too.

More photos from our visit to Mikkeller Brewing Company, San Diego can be seen here.

]]>Season 3, Episode 29 – This week on the show, we’re hanging out at Mikkeller Brewing Company in San Diego, California with Head Brewer Bill Batten and Barrel whisperer Daniel Cady.

World renowned gypsy brewer, Mikkel Borg Bjergsø, recently opened a new brewery right here in the United States. Mikkeller is probably one of the best-known gypsy breweries out there, brewing stellar barrel-aged stouts, wild ales, IPA, and more. Opening a permanent brewery in SoCal is pretty huge, not only for Mikeller Brewing Company, but also for beer geeks in the United States.

Mikkeller Brewing Company, San Diego

Opening a brewery in California is no easy task, which is why Mikkel decided to join forces with San Diego’s AleSmith Brewing Company. In fact, Mikkeller Brewing Company is actually in AleSmith’s former brewery, and they even retained AleSmith’s former Head Brewer, Bill Batten. (AleSmith recently opened a brand new brewery minutes from Mikkeller Brewing, so you should check that out, too).

Greg, Jason and Matt with Bill Batten and Daniel Cady (l to r).

Bill and Daniel sat down with us to talk about the origins of Mikkeller Brewing San Diego and shared some of the freshest Mikkeller beer we’ve every had, brewed right here in California.

Needless to say, but expect exciting things from Mikkeller Brewing in San Diego. The beers we had on the show were quite delicious, and the brewery has been open for only three months as of the recording of this podcast. We’re pretty excited for Mikkeller Brewing Company San Diego, and you should be, too.

More photos from our visit to Mikkeller Brewing Company, San Diego can be seen here.

This week on the show, we’re drinking eight beers from Bruery Terreux in celebration of The Bruery opening a second tasting room in Anaheim, California on July 8, 2016!

Beer from Bruery Terreux

For those not in the know, Bruery Terreux is what The Bruery is branding their sour, funky, and wild line of beers. The beers are all brewed at The Bruery’s brewery, but the wort that is destined to become a Terreux beer is shipped over to the Terreux facility where it’s fermented, inoculated, barreled, etc. This keeps bacteria and bugs away from The Bruery’s “clean” (non-wild, Saccharomyces fermented) beers. Greg wrote an article about the opening of Terreux: Check it out!

The beers on the show this week represent a fairly wide range of what Bruery Terreux is doing. While they’re not all hits, they represent what The Bruery and Bruery Terreux is all about: pushing the boundaries and running wild (pun intended) with creativity.

This week on the show, we’re drinking eight beers from Bruery Terreux in celebration of The Bruery opening a second tasting room in Anaheim, California on July 8, 2016!

Beer from Bruery Terreux

For those not in the know, Bruery Terreux is what The Bruery is branding their sour, funky, and wild line of beers. The beers are all brewed at The Bruery’s brewery, but the wort that is destined to become a Terreux beer is shipped over to the Terreux facility where it’s fermented, inoculated, barreled, etc. This keeps bacteria and bugs away from The Bruery’s “clean” (non-wild, Saccharomyces fermented) beers. Greg wrote an article about the opening of Terreux: Check it out!

The beers on the show this week represent a fairly wide range of what Bruery Terreux is doing. While they’re not all hits, they represent what The Bruery and Bruery Terreux is all about: pushing the boundaries and running wild (pun intended) with creativity.

Before we get too deep into it, we’re gonna start with a trip inside the 4B Mailbag with some Founders Backwoods Bastard. Speaking of which, we’re asking for your beer haikus. Feeling creative? Send us yours at feedback@fourbrewers.com.

Founders, AleSmith, and Bottle Logic Brewing

Next up are three beers that really showcase what’s going on in the SoCal beer scene. AleSmith Brewing Company’s Private Stock Ale and Mexican Speedway Stout are first up. Private Stock Ale is an Old Ale that was made for aging. AleSmith even encourages you to do this. Why? Because, man, IS IT HOT! So much booze on this beer, it’s crazy! But, that’s by design. AleSmith knows what they’re doing and when they tell you to age this beer, you should. Buy a few bottles and open them over the course of five or six years. The booziness should mellow out over time, allowing the beer to really shine. Drink a bottle fresh as a baseline for comparison and then another in a year or two. Hell, buy a case and really geek out with cellaring…

AleSmith makes killer stout—probably the best in the world, according to certain folks. Speedway Stout is a classic coffee stout that lends itself well to barrel aging. This version, Mexican Speedway Stout, is a blend of fresh Speedway Stout and tequila barrel-aged Speedway Stout with cinnamon, Mexican coffee and Mexican Chocolate. The balanced of these particular ingredients in beer is critical, and AleSmith nails it—this beer is fantastic.

Bottle Logic Brewing – Fundamental Observation

We end the show with a beer that needs no introduction, Bottle Logic Brewing’s Fundamental Observation. This beer is the whale-iest of SoCal whales. It’s a fantastic blend of barrel aged stout that literally smells like alcohol infused brownies. While drinking this beer, we talk about beer geeks and beer culture in general and how the scene has changed over that last five years or so. Spoiler: John goes on a rant…

Before we get too deep into it, we’re gonna start with a trip inside the 4B Mailbag with some Founders Backwoods Bastard. Speaking of which, we’re asking for your beer haikus. Feeling creative? Send us yours at feedback@fourbrewers.com.

Founders, AleSmith, and Bottle Logic Brewing

Next up are three beers that really showcase what’s going on in the SoCal beer scene. AleSmith Brewing Company’s Private Stock Ale and Mexican Speedway Stout are first up. Private Stock Ale is an Old Ale that was made for aging. AleSmith even encourages you to do this. Why? Because, man, IS IT HOT! So much booze on this beer, it’s crazy! But, that’s by design. AleSmith knows what they’re doing and when they tell you to age this beer, you should. Buy a few bottles and open them over the course of five or six years. The booziness should mellow out over time, allowing the beer to really shine. Drink a bottle fresh as a baseline for comparison and then another in a year or two. Hell, buy a case and really geek out with cellaring…

AleSmith makes killer stout—probably the best in the world, according to certain folks. Speedway Stout is a classic coffee stout that lends itself well to barrel aging. This version, Mexican Speedway Stout, is a blend of fresh Speedway Stout and tequila barrel-aged Speedway Stout with cinnamon, Mexican coffee and Mexican Chocolate. The balanced of these particular ingredients in beer is critical, and AleSmith nails it—this beer is fantastic.

Bottle Logic Brewing – Fundamental Observation

We end the show with a beer that needs no introduction, Bottle Logic Brewing’s Fundamental Observation. This beer is the whale-iest of SoCal whales. It’s a fantastic blend of barrel aged stout that literally smells like alcohol infused brownies. While drinking this beer, we talk about beer geeks and beer culture in general and how the scene has changed over that last five years or so. Spoiler: John goes on a rant…

As you may remember, a few weeks ago we sampled the Sierra Nevada collaboration Beer Camp 12-pack. We were marginally dissatisfied with most of the beers. It’s not that the beers outright sucked (there were a couple wins), but they just weren’t noteworthy. This week, we decided to try another collaboration mixer. New Belgium’s take on their collaboration “riff pack” differed from Sierra Nevada’s Beer Camp in that every beer is a take (riff, if you will) on New Belgium’s classic Fat Tire Amber Ale. This should be interesting…

New Belgium Collabeeration Riff Pack

Fat Tire is a well known beer. Its classic label, depicting red “retro” bicycle, can be spotted from a mile away (well, maybe not a mile…10 feet?). It’s safe to assume that even the most experienced beer geek among us has tasted Fat Tire at least once. Fat Tire is ubiquitous, but it also tends to get overlooked by beer geeks in search of something more, whatever that may be.

To celebrate their 25th anniversary, New Belgium called upon their closest beer industry buds to take the classic Fat Tire recipe and mix it up. Maybe change the yeast, add MOAR HOPS, or throw in some apple juice? Rhinegeist, Firestone Walker, Allagash, Avery, and Hopworks all participated in the collaboration. Each beer in the Riff Pack is a unique take on Fat Tire.

Did the beers exceed our expectations? Did New Belgium play it safe or did they really try to brew outside the box and make an interesting group of beers? Listen and find out!

As you may remember, a few weeks ago we sampled the Sierra Nevada collaboration Beer Camp 12-pack. We were marginally dissatisfied with most of the beers. It’s not that the beers outright sucked (there were a couple wins), but they just weren’t noteworthy. This week, we decided to try another collaboration mixer. New Belgium’s take on their collaboration “riff pack” differed from Sierra Nevada’s Beer Camp in that every beer is a take (riff, if you will) on New Belgium’s classic Fat Tire Amber Ale. This should be interesting…

New Belgium Collabeeration Riff Pack

Fat Tire is a well known beer. Its classic label, depicting red “retro” bicycle, can be spotted from a mile away (well, maybe not a mile…10 feet?). It’s safe to assume that even the most experienced beer geek among us has tasted Fat Tire at least once. Fat Tire is ubiquitous, but it also tends to get overlooked by beer geeks in search of something more, whatever that may be.

To celebrate their 25th anniversary, New Belgium called upon their closest beer industry buds to take the classic Fat Tire recipe and mix it up. Maybe change the yeast, add MOAR HOPS, or throw in some apple juice? Rhinegeist, Firestone Walker, Allagash, Avery, and Hopworks all participated in the collaboration. Each beer in the Riff Pack is a unique take on Fat Tire.

Did the beers exceed our expectations? Did New Belgium play it safe or did they really try to brew outside the box and make an interesting group of beers? Listen and find out!

L.A. Beer Week is upon us! This yearly celebration of Los Angeles beer, bars, breweries, homebrewers, restaurants, eateries, food trucks, and beer drinkers has evolved into one of the best celebrations of beer culture in southern California. From Long Beach to Pomona to Gorman, the expansive and densely populated county of Los Angeles has become a destination for beer geeks far and wide. Today, we celebrate L.A. beer by drinking eight beers from L.A. breweries.

The Crowd at the 2016 LA Beer Week Kickoff – #LABW8

The 2016 #LABW8 Kickoff Festival was Saturday, June 18, and it was pretty amazing. Not only were Los Angeles breweries pouring, but breweries from Orange County, the Inland Empire, San Diego County, and even the Bay area and beyond were participating in the action. There were so many awesome breweries, and they brought their A-game. Fundamental Observation from Bottle Logic Brewing was “secretly” being poured, Beachwood Blendery brought bottles from their Propagation series of wild and farmhouse inspired ales, while newer breweries like Mumford Brewing impressed folks with their hoppy and juicy IPA. The entertainment was spot on, the lines were short for the most part, and the event overall was very well organized. Props to the Los Angeles County Brewers Guild for organizing such an awesome event!

Los Angeles Breweries

L.A. Beer Week is this week! So many events are happening all over southern California that you’d be hard pressed to not find something that’s happening in your neck of the woods. A full listing of everything that’s going down this week can be found at the L.A. Beer Week website, or by downloading the DoStuff app [iOS | Android] and searching for “LA Beer Week”.

L.A. Beer Week is upon us! This yearly celebration of Los Angeles beer, bars, breweries, homebrewers, restaurants, eateries, food trucks, and beer drinkers has evolved into one of the best celebrations of beer culture in southern California. From Long Beach to Pomona to Gorman, the expansive and densely populated county of Los Angeles has become a destination for beer geeks far and wide. Today, we celebrate L.A. beer by drinking eight beers from L.A. breweries.

The Crowd at the 2016 LA Beer Week Kickoff – #LABW8

The 2016 #LABW8 Kickoff Festival was Saturday, June 18, and it was pretty amazing. Not only were Los Angeles breweries pouring, but breweries from Orange County, the Inland Empire, San Diego County, and even the Bay area and beyond were participating in the action. There were so many awesome breweries, and they brought their A-game. Fundamental Observation from Bottle Logic Brewing was “secretly” being poured, Beachwood Blendery brought bottles from their Propagation series of wild and farmhouse inspired ales, while newer breweries like Mumford Brewing impressed folks with their hoppy and juicy IPA. The entertainment was spot on, the lines were short for the most part, and the event overall was very well organized. Props to the Los Angeles County Brewers Guild for organizing such an awesome event!

Los Angeles Breweries

L.A. Beer Week is this week! So many events are happening all over southern California that you’d be hard pressed to not find something that’s happening in your neck of the woods. A full listing of everything that’s going down this week can be found at the L.A. Beer Week website, or by downloading the DoStuff app [iOS | Android] and searching for “LA Beer Week”.

This week, we are joined by homies Jessica and Sean McNew who recently returned from a trip to Texas and brought back some brew for us to try. But first…

Can you believe it? Jason finally got back to homebrewing and came out swinging with a Heady Topper clone! We kick off the show with this juicy wonder, and Jason sure did deliver. He paid particular attention to his yeast health and fermentation temperatures, and it really paid off—his beer was great!

Lakewood Brewing

Next up are three beers from Lakewood Brewing Co. out of Garland, Texas. The Temptressis a really unique Imperial Milk Stout that comes in at around 9% ABV. It’s a great beer, so great that Lakewood also brewed a couple variations of it, Sin Mint Temptress and Raspberry Temptress. Again, like The Temptress, these beers are both interesting and delicious.

This week, we are joined by homies Jessica and Sean McNew who recently returned from a trip to Texas and brought back some brew for us to try. But first…

Can you believe it? Jason finally got back to homebrewing and came out swinging with a Heady Topper clone! We kick off the show with this juicy wonder, and Jason sure did deliver. He paid particular attention to his yeast health and fermentation temperatures, and it really paid off—his beer was great!

Lakewood Brewing

Next up are three beers from Lakewood Brewing Co. out of Garland, Texas. The Temptressis a really unique Imperial Milk Stout that comes in at around 9% ABV. It’s a great beer, so great that Lakewood also brewed a couple variations of it, Sin Mint Temptress and Raspberry Temptress. Again, like The Temptress, these beers are both interesting and delicious.

]]>51:36yes[S3/E23] Wet Hop American Beer CampSun, 05 Jun 2016 23:57:23 +0000Season 3, Episode 23 – This week, we follow suit with all of the other beer podcasts and try the six beers from the Sierra Nevada Beer Camp 12 (six?) pack.

This week, we’re going to beer camp! Not really, but we’re gonna imagine we are by drinking the six beers from this year’s Sierra Nevada Brewing Company Beer Camp collaboration variety pack.

Sierra Nevada Beer Camp 2016

Our very own Greg Nagel went to Sierra Nevada’s Beer Camp. For a while, it was an actual event that select homebrewers from all over the country participated in at Sierra Nevada’s brewery in Chico, California. Each team would concoct a recipe and brew it as a pilot batch. Following that and some recipe tweaks, the final recipes would then be brewed at scale by Sierra Nevada for the variety pack.

This year, the Beer Camp variety pack is comprised of 12 beers, two bottles from six different regional brewery collaborations. The breweries involved are well known within their local markets, as well as with hardcore beer geeks. Expectations are always high when it comes to big brewery collaborations, and rightly so.

]]>Season 3, Episode 23 – This week, we follow suit with all of the other beer podcasts and try the six beers from the Sierra Nevada Beer Camp 12 (six?) pack.

This week, we’re going to beer camp! Not really, but we’re gonna imagine we are by drinking the six beers from this year’s Sierra Nevada Brewing Company Beer Camp collaboration variety pack.

Sierra Nevada Beer Camp 2016

Our very own Greg Nagel went to Sierra Nevada’s Beer Camp. For a while, it was an actual event that select homebrewers from all over the country participated in at Sierra Nevada’s brewery in Chico, California. Each team would concoct a recipe and brew it as a pilot batch. Following that and some recipe tweaks, the final recipes would then be brewed at scale by Sierra Nevada for the variety pack.

This year, the Beer Camp variety pack is comprised of 12 beers, two bottles from six different regional brewery collaborations. The breweries involved are well known within their local markets, as well as with hardcore beer geeks. Expectations are always high when it comes to big brewery collaborations, and rightly so.

]]>49:10yes[S3/E22] New Zealand's Garage ProjectMon, 30 May 2016 00:00:00 +0000Season 3, Episode 22 – New Zealand’s Garage Project recently became available in our local California bottle shops, so this week we’re seeing what the hype is all about…and the hype is real!

Before we start the show this week, it should be noted that Matt wasn’t able to make it to Session 35 of Four Brewers due to personal affairs, and thus will not be on this episode or the next one. See you at Session 36, Matt!

The first time we heard about Garage Project was at the Firestone Walker Invitation Beer Festival. A hyped brewery that came all the way from New Zealand, making insta-whalez that seemingly nobody in the States could get their hands on. Time has passed and the brewery has grown, and we’re happy to say that Garage Project is finally distributed in the United States. While awesome, there’s a price to pay for these imported brews. Garage Project doesn’t skimp on quality, so expect to fork out a little more cash than you normally would for an American craft brewery of the same caliber.

Garage Project Beers

One thing that should be noted about this week’s beers is the freshness of the hoppier brews. Experience with imported IPA and DIPA tells the seasoned craft beer buyer to generally avoid them. Usually, it’s a very real case of #HopsSoFaded because the beer doesn’t hit shelves at its peak freshness. Garage Project’s importer, Craft Imports, seems to be on top of their game, delivering fresh IPA to our local bottle shops in such a timely manner that it tastes like they were bottled last week. This also speaks to the quality of Garage Project brews—they know how to maximize the hoppy freshness we all demand. #ThumbsUp

Garage Project/Kyodo Shoji COEDO Brewery/Stone Brewing Collaboration

The beers on the show this week range from hoppy, as mentioned above, to strange, but delicious. This week’s episode is a strong juxtaposition to last week’s in that Garage Project’s core is experimenting with unusual ingredients and making creative beers.

Garage Project is making interesting beer, and we’re stoked to finally have them available in California.

]]>Season 3, Episode 22 – New Zealand’s Garage Project recently became available in our local California bottle shops, so this week we’re seeing what the hype is all about…and the hype is real!

Before we start the show this week, it should be noted that Matt wasn’t able to make it to Session 35 of Four Brewers due to personal affairs, and thus will not be on this episode or the next one. See you at Session 36, Matt!

The first time we heard about Garage Project was at the Firestone Walker Invitation Beer Festival. A hyped brewery that came all the way from New Zealand, making insta-whalez that seemingly nobody in the States could get their hands on. Time has passed and the brewery has grown, and we’re happy to say that Garage Project is finally distributed in the United States. While awesome, there’s a price to pay for these imported brews. Garage Project doesn’t skimp on quality, so expect to fork out a little more cash than you normally would for an American craft brewery of the same caliber.

Garage Project Beers

One thing that should be noted about this week’s beers is the freshness of the hoppier brews. Experience with imported IPA and DIPA tells the seasoned craft beer buyer to generally avoid them. Usually, it’s a very real case of #HopsSoFaded because the beer doesn’t hit shelves at its peak freshness. Garage Project’s importer, Craft Imports, seems to be on top of their game, delivering fresh IPA to our local bottle shops in such a timely manner that it tastes like they were bottled last week. This also speaks to the quality of Garage Project brews—they know how to maximize the hoppy freshness we all demand. #ThumbsUp

Garage Project/Kyodo Shoji COEDO Brewery/Stone Brewing Collaboration

The beers on the show this week range from hoppy, as mentioned above, to strange, but delicious. This week’s episode is a strong juxtaposition to last week’s in that Garage Project’s core is experimenting with unusual ingredients and making creative beers.

Garage Project is making interesting beer, and we’re stoked to finally have them available in California.

]]>52:41yes[S3/E21] Reformation BreweryTue, 24 May 2016 00:40:29 +0000Season 3, Episode 21 – This week on the show, 4B listener and super-fan, Mike Kirshner, is at it once again and sent us some really tasty brew from Woodstock, Georgia.

Before we start the show this week, it should be noted that Matt wasn’t able to make it to Session 35 of Four Brewers due to personal affairs, and thus will not be on this episode or the next two. See you at Session 36, Matt!

We begin by reading our (long overdue) thank you list of Four Brewers’ supporters and podcast reviewers on iTunes. We haven’t read thank-yous since November of 2015, so if you’ve left a review or supported the show since then, you’ll hear your name on this episode!

Reformation Brewery Beers

Today, we’re drinking beers from Woodstock, Georgia’s Reformation Brewery. Trends in the craft beer scene over the last decade or so have been what could mildly be described as “experimental” by many, many breweries. On one hand, that’s what craft beer is—innovation and experimentation. On the other hand, things can get out of control when it comes to adding ingredients to beer. Reformation’s stance is to make quality, classic beer styles, while at the same time throwing their own spin on it. It’s certainly a noble approach to beer. (Tap’s Fish House, anyone? They’re winning medals left and right…)

Mike sent us four Reformation beers: Union, Cadence, Atlas, and Stark. These beers basically cover the spectrum of classic craft beer, from Belgian witbier to Porter. These beers were pretty fantastic, overall.

Big thanks to Mike for once again hooking us up with some great east coast brew!

]]>Season 3, Episode 21 – This week on the show, 4B listener and super-fan, Mike Kirshner, is at it once again and sent us some really tasty brew from Woodstock, Georgia.

Before we start the show this week, it should be noted that Matt wasn’t able to make it to Session 35 of Four Brewers due to personal affairs, and thus will not be on this episode or the next two. See you at Session 36, Matt!

We begin by reading our (long overdue) thank you list of Four Brewers’ supporters and podcast reviewers on iTunes. We haven’t read thank-yous since November of 2015, so if you’ve left a review or supported the show since then, you’ll hear your name on this episode!

Reformation Brewery Beers

Today, we’re drinking beers from Woodstock, Georgia’s Reformation Brewery. Trends in the craft beer scene over the last decade or so have been what could mildly be described as “experimental” by many, many breweries. On one hand, that’s what craft beer is—innovation and experimentation. On the other hand, things can get out of control when it comes to adding ingredients to beer. Reformation’s stance is to make quality, classic beer styles, while at the same time throwing their own spin on it. It’s certainly a noble approach to beer. (Tap’s Fish House, anyone? They’re winning medals left and right…)

Mike sent us four Reformation beers: Union, Cadence, Atlas, and Stark. These beers basically cover the spectrum of classic craft beer, from Belgian witbier to Porter. These beers were pretty fantastic, overall.

Big thanks to Mike for once again hooking us up with some great east coast brew!

]]>47:59yes[S3/E20] Funky Beer and Sour IPA?Mon, 16 May 2016 00:00:00 +0000Season 3, Episode 20 – Sour IPA. It’s a thing apparently. But is it a good thing? We’re gonna find out this week on the show.

Sour IPA. I don’t know about this. I mean, IPA isn’t supposed to be sour. Sure, there are massively over-hopped sour beers out there that are deliciously awesome, but what exactly is a sour IPA? Is it a standard IPA recipe fermented with brettanomyces, or bacteria? It’s not that simple, right? WHAT’S HAPPENING?!

Not all of the beers on the show this week are sour IPAs. But, we’re gonna easy into this. A little bit of foreplay, if you will…

Monkish Brewing Co. – Soul Foudre

First up is a beer from a brewery that is always a safe bet in terms of quality and execution, Monkish Brewing Company’sSoul Foudre. While this beer has no place in a sour IPA show, it’s our way of telling our palates, “hey…this is what a good beer tastes like.” Not that we think the sour IPA will be bad, but it’s called SOUR IPA. Anyway, Soul Foudre is great. Monkish will have some fruit variants of Soul Foudre up for sale this week, so check that out. Monkish is 4B approved! *ding*

Epic Brewing Co. and Odd 13 Brewing

Alright, now to the nitty gritty. The first sour IPA on deck is Epic Brewing Co.’sTart N’ Juicy Sour IPA (marketing, anyone?). This is an unusual beer, to say the least. Without giving too much away, it’s tart…and juicy. Yep. It is definitely those things.

Next up is Odd 13 Brewing’sVincent Van Couch. They call this a “session sour” and it’s made with Citra and Mosaic hops. So while technically not an IPA, it kinda is? This is so confusing…

]]>Season 3, Episode 20 – Sour IPA. It’s a thing apparently. But is it a good thing? We’re gonna find out this week on the show.

Sour IPA. I don’t know about this. I mean, IPA isn’t supposed to be sour. Sure, there are massively over-hopped sour beers out there that are deliciously awesome, but what exactly is a sour IPA? Is it a standard IPA recipe fermented with brettanomyces, or bacteria? It’s not that simple, right? WHAT’S HAPPENING?!

Not all of the beers on the show this week are sour IPAs. But, we’re gonna easy into this. A little bit of foreplay, if you will…

Monkish Brewing Co. – Soul Foudre

First up is a beer from a brewery that is always a safe bet in terms of quality and execution, Monkish Brewing Company’sSoul Foudre. While this beer has no place in a sour IPA show, it’s our way of telling our palates, “hey…this is what a good beer tastes like.” Not that we think the sour IPA will be bad, but it’s called SOUR IPA. Anyway, Soul Foudre is great. Monkish will have some fruit variants of Soul Foudre up for sale this week, so check that out. Monkish is 4B approved! *ding*

Epic Brewing Co. and Odd 13 Brewing

Alright, now to the nitty gritty. The first sour IPA on deck is Epic Brewing Co.’sTart N’ Juicy Sour IPA (marketing, anyone?). This is an unusual beer, to say the least. Without giving too much away, it’s tart…and juicy. Yep. It is definitely those things.

Next up is Odd 13 Brewing’sVincent Van Couch. They call this a “session sour” and it’s made with Citra and Mosaic hops. So while technically not an IPA, it kinda is? This is so confusing…

]]>45:39yes[S3/E19] Plan Bee, Newburgh, Carton, and Refuge.Mon, 09 May 2016 00:50:01 +0000Season 3, Episode 19 – This week we’re drinking some brews form New York and New Jersey and a new Grapefruit IPA from our friends at Refuge Brewery in Temecula, California. Natalie DeNicholas and John Ryti are also back with us.

Four Brewers has the best listeners. It’s true. Just putting that out there. I say that because four of the five beers we’re drinking on the show this week were graciously provided by Four Brewers listener Robert Perry. Getting east coast beers is tough for us, but fans like Robert have been stepping up lately and sending us some killer stuff.

Carton, Newburgh, and Plan Bee Beers

The first two beers are from New Jersey’s Carton Brewing Company. Unbeknown to us, Carton is actually a great get for us here on the west coast, and the two IPAs we got from Robery were fresh AF. That’s how you do it folks: ship ’em fast and fresh!

Plan Bee and Newburgh Wax-Stamped Bottle Caps

Next up are two beers, both from two breweries that we had no idea even existed, Plan Bee Farm Brewery and Newburgh Brewing Co. The two beers are what they call a “100% NY Sour Ale” and are made with locally sourced ingredients from around the state of New York. Both beers are the exact same recipe, but each was fermented with two different yeast strains–one from Plan Bee and one from Newburgh. These beers were really great. Folks in NY/NJ are lucky to be able to get this magical juice…

Refuge Brewery – Grapefruit IPA

We wrap up the show with a new beer from a local favorite of ours, Refuge Brewery out of Temecula, CA. Temecula’s beer scene has really been blowing up lately, and Refuge was there at the beginning of the boom. Their Blood Orange Wit is well known in these parts, and since they nailed the fruited witbier category, they decided to try their hand at an IPA with grapefruit.

]]>Season 3, Episode 19 – This week we’re drinking some brews form New York and New Jersey and a new Grapefruit IPA from our friends at Refuge Brewery in Temecula, California. Natalie DeNicholas and John Ryti are also back with us.

Four Brewers has the best listeners. It’s true. Just putting that out there. I say that because four of the five beers we’re drinking on the show this week were graciously provided by Four Brewers listener Robert Perry. Getting east coast beers is tough for us, but fans like Robert have been stepping up lately and sending us some killer stuff.

Carton, Newburgh, and Plan Bee Beers

The first two beers are from New Jersey’s Carton Brewing Company. Unbeknown to us, Carton is actually a great get for us here on the west coast, and the two IPAs we got from Robery were fresh AF. That’s how you do it folks: ship ’em fast and fresh!

Plan Bee and Newburgh Wax-Stamped Bottle Caps

Next up are two beers, both from two breweries that we had no idea even existed, Plan Bee Farm Brewery and Newburgh Brewing Co. The two beers are what they call a “100% NY Sour Ale” and are made with locally sourced ingredients from around the state of New York. Both beers are the exact same recipe, but each was fermented with two different yeast strains–one from Plan Bee and one from Newburgh. These beers were really great. Folks in NY/NJ are lucky to be able to get this magical juice…

Refuge Brewery – Grapefruit IPA

We wrap up the show with a new beer from a local favorite of ours, Refuge Brewery out of Temecula, CA. Temecula’s beer scene has really been blowing up lately, and Refuge was there at the beginning of the boom. Their Blood Orange Wit is well known in these parts, and since they nailed the fruited witbier category, they decided to try their hand at an IPA with grapefruit.

It’s been a slow year for the 4B gang in regards to homebrewing,
but today we’re going to make up for the last five months in one
episode! Today we’re drinking five homebrews from four brewers (get
it?).

Maltose Falcons – Saison du Mai

First up is John’s triumphant
return to brewing, Oat Boner. This beer was inspired
by his wildly popular oatmeal IPA, Oats n’ Hoes, but
is stripped down and simplified. There are three ingredients in
this brew: 2-row malt, oats, and mosaic hops (a LOT of Mosaic
hops…). While the beer is a hit with everyone at the table, John
thinks it could use a few tweaks.

Next up is a beer from one of our special guests, Natalie
DeNicholas. We got a lot of positive feedback when she was on the
show previously, and now she’s back! This time she brought a
super-crushable lager made with Thai rice. It’s really good! Also,
shout out to Sanctum Brewing Co. (that’s where Natalie works)
and the legendary Maltose Falcons (where Natalie is the
Burger-Meister).

Next up are two beers from Greg. One is a variant
of a beer that Greg brought a few episodes
back while the other is a new beer that he’s looking for
some advice on. SPOILER ALERT. Don’t try to ferment a beer with
expired yeast. That is NO BUENO!

Next up is a Red IPA from long time friend of the show, John
Ryti. This is beer was made with a new type of malt called Red X
that apparently will give your beer a red hue without imparting a
whole lot of that red-caramel flavor that is usually associated
with traditional “red” malt. It’s quite tasty, to say the
least.

We wrap up the show with a canned homebrew (how rad is that?!)
that Natalie brought over from her homebrew club, Maltose
Falcons. Saison du Mai is a saison (obvi), which
is right up Matt’s alley,
made with a bunch of fun, tropical ingredients.

]]>Season 3, Episode 18 – This week: ALL HOMEBREW. Natalie
DeNicholas and John Ryti are also joining us!

It’s been a slow year for the 4B gang in regards to homebrewing,
but today we’re going to make up for the last five months in one
episode! Today we’re drinking five homebrews from four brewers (get
it?).

Maltose Falcons – Saison du Mai

First up is John’s triumphant
return to brewing, Oat Boner. This beer was inspired
by his wildly popular oatmeal IPA, Oats n’ Hoes, but
is stripped down and simplified. There are three ingredients in
this brew: 2-row malt, oats, and mosaic hops (a LOT of Mosaic
hops…). While the beer is a hit with everyone at the table, John
thinks it could use a few tweaks.

Next up is a beer from one of our special guests, Natalie
DeNicholas. We got a lot of positive feedback when she was on the
show previously, and now she’s back! This time she brought a
super-crushable lager made with Thai rice. It’s really good! Also,
shout out to Sanctum Brewing Co. (that’s where Natalie works)
and the legendary Maltose Falcons (where Natalie is the
Burger-Meister).

Next up are two beers from Greg. One is a variant
of a beer that Greg brought a few episodes
back while the other is a new beer that he’s looking for
some advice on. SPOILER ALERT. Don’t try to ferment a beer with
expired yeast. That is NO BUENO!

Next up is a Red IPA from long time friend of the show, John
Ryti. This is beer was made with a new type of malt called Red X
that apparently will give your beer a red hue without imparting a
whole lot of that red-caramel flavor that is usually associated
with traditional “red” malt. It’s quite tasty, to say the
least.

We wrap up the show with a canned homebrew (how rad is that?!)
that Natalie brought over from her homebrew club, Maltose
Falcons. Saison du Mai is a saison (obvi), which
is right up Matt’s alley,
made with a bunch of fun, tropical ingredients.

It’s been a while since our last showdown, and we’ve wrestled
with how we are going to handle IPA for a long time now. Initially,
we thought about trying to get the best of the best IPA from around
the country and compare them all blind. The challenge there is it’s
nearly impossible to get beer from all over the place, at an
acceptable level of freshness, in one place at one time. Plus, as
fun as it is to read about a magical elixir from a brewery
thousands of miles away that drinks of pure unobtainium, what about
something a bit easier to come by?

Enter the CA Shelf IPA Showdown!

2016 IPA Showdown Beers

These beers are all from California. They’re all IPAs and all
widely and readily available. Hell, they’re probably sitting in
your local grocer dying a slow painful death. So we set out to
determine the king of the hill.

The Method

While we knew which beers were in the pool, we had our good
friend Dr Zack administer the tasting for us totally blind. We
didn’t know what we were drinking when we rated it, and we revealed
at the end. We each rated the beer 1-100 using our completely
arbitrary personal preference scales, and averaged those ratings to
get a total.

All of these beers were well within acceptable freshness range
(The oldest bottle had a bottling date of 2/9/2016 which was less
than 2 months before recording) and were purchased at our old
standby Gerrard’s Market in Redlands, CA. All of the beer at this
store is kept in a walk in cooler, so conditions were about as
ideal as we’re going to get. But all of this beer was purchased, by
us, off the shelf, and not provided by the brewery.

Lagunitas IPA may hail
from California, but you can probably get it at your local gas
station. This beer is available in 48 states in the US, and likely
the only IPA on at the janky bar down the way from you that got one
of these IPAs that people keep talking about. In this field of CA
standbys, Lagunitas disappointed. We were impressed with the
clarity, but minimal hop presence combined with a maltier than
average backbone and astringent flavors led this beer to rank a
full 10 points below the next lowest ranking beer.

Probably the only beer more ubiquitous than Lagunitas
IPA is Sierra
Nevada’s venerable Torpedo. This beer is
available in all 50 states and Washington DC! It’s also doing
pretty poorly against it’s CA born peers. We thought the beer was
appropriately old school. Aroma notes included citrus, pine and
crackery sweet malt character, but the flavor fell flat with our
field. Too much sweet caramel malt, limited hop presence and an
overall flat, bitter character dropped this standby near the bottom
of the field.

Stone IPA is a standby in California
and beyond, acting as an aggressive example of the West Coast IPA
style. We found it aggressive indeed – flavor descriptors include
words like bracing, challenging, boozy and unrefined. While overall
we enjoyed the beer, we found the rough around the edges approach
to IPA to be limiting and knocked it down in the field.

AleSmith IPA has been discussed on 4B
before in a Going in Blind segment. It continues
to vex the show, convincing Greg that he was drinking Stone IPA
until the reveal showed him to be dead wrong. This beer scored high
marks from John and Jason for being a classicly bitter “San Diego
style” West Coast IPA, but didn’t do as hot with Matt and
Greg.

Racer 5 from Bear
Republic has been the low key stand by west coast IPA for
several years now. We were able to pick out a lot of different
aroma notes, and kept finding different aroma descriptors the more
we tried it. While it registered high notes with most of our crew,
Jason was a dissenter and was so put off by the odd sweet
aftertaste and diesel aroma notes that he knocked it down to his
3rd lowest beer of the day. Jason’s 66 score knocked it down from
an 83.83 (and second place) into 5th. From a beer that has roots
tracing back into the 1990s, Racer 5 made a very strong
showing.

We went in depth comparing AlpineDuet vs. Green
Flash Duet way back in season 2, episode
32, and we had high praises for both versions then. Some might
think that having the smallest distribution footprint (even after
the Green Flash acquisition) would give this beer an unfair
advantage, but the gang was divided on this beer in this showdown.
Jason and John really liked it and considered it an above average
beer. Greg and Matt, on the other hand, thought it was fairly ho
hum. In the end, Alpine Duet scored solidly and
placed above the middle of the field.

While it kinda seems like a double up to have Green
Flash and Alpine in the same showdown, the West
Coast IPA is a classic and acts as a solid representative
of the style. But you wouldn’t know that to listen to our notes, as
we made it a huge point to talk about how not West Coast the beer
is. It was a bit maltier and danker than we expected, and while our
initial reactions were a bit reserved, upon digging into our
glasses we came to really enjoy it. We didn’t absolutely love the
aroma, but the flavor really brought us around. Between this beer
and Alpine at number 4, Green Flash made a strong showing as a
brewery.

Sculpin is the beer that really put Ballast
Point on the map after their World Beer Cup Win in 2010.
It quickly rocketed from a limited seasonal beer into a flagship
and now one of the most readily available IPAs in the markets that
get Ballast Point. An established favorite with Jason, this beer
impressed the gang with it’s more modern IPA style and tropical
fruit notes. Greg appreciated the malt character while Jason liked
the lingering dankness. It hit everyone’s palate in a just the
right way that took led it to barely edge out the competition from
Green Flash.

Union Jack is considered by Matt to be the Rodney
Dangerfield of the California IPA world. While very widely
available, it does not usually get a lot of accolades from the beer
world. It also suffered from being the oldest beer in our flight,
bottled on 2/9/2016! Despite that, this beer wowed us. We loved the
aroma, and loved the beer in just about every way. It seemed to
walk the tightrope between malty and dry, hoppy and bitter, and
came in right in the sweet spot for our palates. It was the second
highest rated beer from John, and the highest rated from Matt,
Jason and Greg. Despite being counted out by Jason going into the
showdown, Firestone continues their dominance in 4B Blind
Showdowns and tops the podium again. We promise we’re not getting
kickbacks from them, you guys.

It’s been a while since our last showdown, and we’ve wrestled
with how we are going to handle IPA for a long time now. Initially,
we thought about trying to get the best of the best IPA from around
the country and compare them all blind. The challenge there is it’s
nearly impossible to get beer from all over the place, at an
acceptable level of freshness, in one place at one time. Plus, as
fun as it is to read about a magical elixir from a brewery
thousands of miles away that drinks of pure unobtainium, what about
something a bit easier to come by?

Enter the CA Shelf IPA Showdown!

2016 IPA Showdown Beers

These beers are all from California. They’re all IPAs and all
widely and readily available. Hell, they’re probably sitting in
your local grocer dying a slow painful death. So we set out to
determine the king of the hill.

The Method

While we knew which beers were in the pool, we had our good
friend Dr Zack administer the tasting for us totally blind. We
didn’t know what we were drinking when we rated it, and we revealed
at the end. We each rated the beer 1-100 using our completely
arbitrary personal preference scales, and averaged those ratings to
get a total.

All of these beers were well within acceptable freshness range
(The oldest bottle had a bottling date of 2/9/2016 which was less
than 2 months before recording) and were purchased at our old
standby Gerrard’s Market in Redlands, CA. All of the beer at this
store is kept in a walk in cooler, so conditions were about as
ideal as we’re going to get. But all of this beer was purchased, by
us, off the shelf, and not provided by the brewery.

Lagunitas IPA may hail
from California, but you can probably get it at your local gas
station. This beer is available in 48 states in the US, and likely
the only IPA on at the janky bar down the way from you that got one
of these IPAs that people keep talking about. In this field of CA
standbys, Lagunitas disappointed. We were impressed with the
clarity, but minimal hop presence combined with a maltier than
average backbone and astringent flavors led this beer to rank a
full 10 points below the next lowest ranking beer.

Probably the only beer more ubiquitous than Lagunitas
IPA is Sierra
Nevada’s venerable Torpedo. This beer is
available in all 50 states and Washington DC! It’s also doing
pretty poorly against it’s CA born peers. We thought the beer was
appropriately old school. Aroma notes included citrus, pine and
crackery sweet malt character, but the flavor fell flat with our
field. Too much sweet caramel malt, limited hop presence and an
overall flat, bitter character dropped this standby near the bottom
of the field.

Stone IPA is a standby in California
and beyond, acting as an aggressive example of the West Coast IPA
style. We found it aggressive indeed – flavor descriptors include
words like bracing, challenging, boozy and unrefined. While overall
we enjoyed the beer, we found the rough around the edges approach
to IPA to be limiting and knocked it down in the field.

AleSmith IPA has been discussed on 4B
before in a Going in Blind segment. It continues
to vex the show, convincing Greg that he was drinking Stone IPA
until the reveal showed him to be dead wrong. This beer scored high
marks from John and Jason for being a classicly bitter “San Diego
style” West Coast IPA, but didn’t do as hot with Matt and
Greg.

Racer 5 from Bear
Republic has been the low key stand by west coast IPA for
several years now. We were able to pick out a lot of different
aroma notes, and kept finding different aroma descriptors the more
we tried it. While it registered high notes with most of our crew,
Jason was a dissenter and was so put off by the odd sweet
aftertaste and diesel aroma notes that he knocked it down to his
3rd lowest beer of the day. Jason’s 66 score knocked it down from
an 83.83 (and second place) into 5th. From a beer that has roots
tracing back into the 1990s, Racer 5 made a very strong
showing.

We went in depth comparing AlpineDuet vs. Green
Flash Duet way back in season 2, episode
32, and we had high praises for both versions then. Some might
think that having the smallest distribution footprint (even after
the Green Flash acquisition) would give this beer an unfair
advantage, but the gang was divided on this beer in this showdown.
Jason and John really liked it and considered it an above average
beer. Greg and Matt, on the other hand, thought it was fairly ho
hum. In the end, Alpine Duet scored solidly and
placed above the middle of the field.

While it kinda seems like a double up to have Green
Flash and Alpine in the same showdown, the West
Coast IPA is a classic and acts as a solid representative
of the style. But you wouldn’t know that to listen to our notes, as
we made it a huge point to talk about how not West Coast the beer
is. It was a bit maltier and danker than we expected, and while our
initial reactions were a bit reserved, upon digging into our
glasses we came to really enjoy it. We didn’t absolutely love the
aroma, but the flavor really brought us around. Between this beer
and Alpine at number 4, Green Flash made a strong showing as a
brewery.

Sculpin is the beer that really put Ballast
Point on the map after their World Beer Cup Win in 2010.
It quickly rocketed from a limited seasonal beer into a flagship
and now one of the most readily available IPAs in the markets that
get Ballast Point. An established favorite with Jason, this beer
impressed the gang with it’s more modern IPA style and tropical
fruit notes. Greg appreciated the malt character while Jason liked
the lingering dankness. It hit everyone’s palate in a just the
right way that took led it to barely edge out the competition from
Green Flash.

Union Jack is considered by Matt to be the Rodney
Dangerfield of the California IPA world. While very widely
available, it does not usually get a lot of accolades from the beer
world. It also suffered from being the oldest beer in our flight,
bottled on 2/9/2016! Despite that, this beer wowed us. We loved the
aroma, and loved the beer in just about every way. It seemed to
walk the tightrope between malty and dry, hoppy and bitter, and
came in right in the sweet spot for our palates. It was the second
highest rated beer from John, and the highest rated from Matt,
Jason and Greg. Despite being counted out by Jason going into the
showdown, Firestone continues their dominance in 4B Blind
Showdowns and tops the podium again. We promise we’re not getting
kickbacks from them, you guys.

]]>52:12yes[S3/E16] New England Strikes BackSun, 17 Apr 2016 23:00:00 +0000Season 3, Episode 16 – We’re back on the east side with some of New England’s best IPA.

I’ve got to say that this is one hell of a show, this week. Listener Chris R. heard a recent episode of the 4B where we weren’t really all that impressed with some of the New England-ish (Pennsylvania, to be exact) beers we had on the show. So what did Chris do? He mailed the fuck out of it and sent us some true New England IPA freshies the day after the show was released. This week, we’ve got beers from Tree House Brewing Company, Foolproof Brewing Company, and Grey Sail Brewing of RI. Shit yeah!

New England Strikes Back

You might notice that our beloved co-host, Greg Nagel, isn’t with us this week. That’s because he tweaked his back and had some kind of viral thingy going on. Huge. Bummer. Instead, we brought the foremost expert (AFAWK) on whale farming, Dr. Zack, which works out well because he happens to know quite a bit about some of the breweries on the show this week.

Big thanks to Mr. Chris R. for the beers. While we’re on the subject, if you’ve got beers from your area that you think we’d like, send ’em our way! Getting a broad range of beers on the show is somewhat difficult for us, so any help we can get is welcomed and much appreciated.

]]>Season 3, Episode 16 – We’re back on the east side with some of New England’s best IPA.

I’ve got to say that this is one hell of a show, this week. Listener Chris R. heard a recent episode of the 4B where we weren’t really all that impressed with some of the New England-ish (Pennsylvania, to be exact) beers we had on the show. So what did Chris do? He mailed the fuck out of it and sent us some true New England IPA freshies the day after the show was released. This week, we’ve got beers from Tree House Brewing Company, Foolproof Brewing Company, and Grey Sail Brewing of RI. Shit yeah!

New England Strikes Back

You might notice that our beloved co-host, Greg Nagel, isn’t with us this week. That’s because he tweaked his back and had some kind of viral thingy going on. Huge. Bummer. Instead, we brought the foremost expert (AFAWK) on whale farming, Dr. Zack, which works out well because he happens to know quite a bit about some of the breweries on the show this week.

Big thanks to Mr. Chris R. for the beers. While we’re on the subject, if you’ve got beers from your area that you think we’d like, send ’em our way! Getting a broad range of beers on the show is somewhat difficult for us, so any help we can get is welcomed and much appreciated.

]]>53:20yes[S3/E15] Japanese Beers and Going In BlindMon, 11 Apr 2016 01:57:23 +0000Season 3, Episode 15 – Greg was inspired by a recent trip to Total Wine & More to try beers made by Japanese breweries, and he brought them over to share.

This week, we travel to the other side of the globe (actually, Greg just went to the local Total Wine) and try some Japanese beers that are easy to find (presumably) all over the country.

Japanese Beers

The coolest part of import beer is the ability to travel the world’s flavors with a quick trip to the big-box beer store. Since delicious ramen, sushi or okonomiyaki cannot be shipped with relative tentacle porn manga freshness, beer is the next best thing. Two Japanese craft breweries make their way out west, Kiuchi Brewery, brewers of the Hitachino Nest branded beers and YO-HO Brewing, and their takes on world beer styles are interesting, if found fresh.

The issue with import beer is this: oxidation rears its ugly head on the first sip. Faded hops if not gone all together, the lustre gone, and any magic the brewers intended to put in the package died in a warehouse months ago. The price? Also incredibly expensive compared to ultra-fresh local beer. If you make it out to Japan, give these beers a try…and listen in to the show as we attempt look around the age and marvel at what was supposed to be.

We wrap up the show with a round of Going In Blind, hosted by Mr. Nagel.

]]>Season 3, Episode 15 – Greg was inspired by a recent trip to Total Wine & More to try beers made by Japanese breweries, and he brought them over to share.

This week, we travel to the other side of the globe (actually, Greg just went to the local Total Wine) and try some Japanese beers that are easy to find (presumably) all over the country.

Japanese Beers

The coolest part of import beer is the ability to travel the world’s flavors with a quick trip to the big-box beer store. Since delicious ramen, sushi or okonomiyaki cannot be shipped with relative tentacle porn manga freshness, beer is the next best thing. Two Japanese craft breweries make their way out west, Kiuchi Brewery, brewers of the Hitachino Nest branded beers and YO-HO Brewing, and their takes on world beer styles are interesting, if found fresh.

The issue with import beer is this: oxidation rears its ugly head on the first sip. Faded hops if not gone all together, the lustre gone, and any magic the brewers intended to put in the package died in a warehouse months ago. The price? Also incredibly expensive compared to ultra-fresh local beer. If you make it out to Japan, give these beers a try…and listen in to the show as we attempt look around the age and marvel at what was supposed to be.

We wrap up the show with a round of Going In Blind, hosted by Mr. Nagel.

]]>49:16yesThe 4B Flight: Fiddlehead Brewing Company - Second FiddleSat, 09 Apr 2016 23:00:00 +0000The 4B Flight, Episode 6 – Today on the sixth and final day of The 4B Flight, Second Fiddle from Fiddlehead Brewing Company.

We are back with the final episode of this week’s mini-episode-extravaganza that we call The 4B Flight. In case you missed what’s going on here, we’re releasing a new mini-episode of Four Brewers everyday for a week. Why? Because we like you.

Fiddlehead Brewing Company – Second Fiddle

The final beer of the the flight is a great double IPA from a brewery new to us, Vermont’s Fiddlehead Brewing Company. The brewery describes this beer as “big and juicy” (of course!) and we concur that it is, in fact, juicy.

That wraps up The 4B Flight! Thanks for listening, and look forward to another flight in a few months. Cheers!

BREW THE SHIT OUT OF IT.

Beers from this week’s episode:Fiddlehead Brewing Company – Second Fiddle

]]>The 4B Flight, Episode 6 – Today on the sixth and final day of The 4B Flight, Second Fiddle from Fiddlehead Brewing Company.

We are back with the final episode of this week’s mini-episode-extravaganza that we call The 4B Flight. In case you missed what’s going on here, we’re releasing a new mini-episode of Four Brewers everyday for a week. Why? Because we like you.

Fiddlehead Brewing Company – Second Fiddle

The final beer of the the flight is a great double IPA from a brewery new to us, Vermont’s Fiddlehead Brewing Company. The brewery describes this beer as “big and juicy” (of course!) and we concur that it is, in fact, juicy.

That wraps up The 4B Flight! Thanks for listening, and look forward to another flight in a few months. Cheers!

BREW THE SHIT OUT OF IT.

Beers from this week’s episode:Fiddlehead Brewing Company – Second Fiddle

We are back with the fifth of six episodes for this week’s mini-episode-extravaganza that we call The 4B Flight. In case you missed what’s going on here, we’re releasing a new mini-episode of Four Brewers everyday for a week. Why? Because we like you.

Hop Tanker DIPA

If you listen to the show regularly, you know that all four of us are big fans of El Segundo Brewing Co. Today’s beer was bottled less than 48 hours before we opened it, in true “Day One Dankness” form. Hop Tanker is ESBC’s double IPA made with Nelson and Citra hops. It’s clean, hoppy AF, and all around delicious.

We are back with the fifth of six episodes for this week’s mini-episode-extravaganza that we call The 4B Flight. In case you missed what’s going on here, we’re releasing a new mini-episode of Four Brewers everyday for a week. Why? Because we like you.

Hop Tanker DIPA

If you listen to the show regularly, you know that all four of us are big fans of El Segundo Brewing Co. Today’s beer was bottled less than 48 hours before we opened it, in true “Day One Dankness” form. Hop Tanker is ESBC’s double IPA made with Nelson and Citra hops. It’s clean, hoppy AF, and all around delicious.

We are back with the fourth of six episodes for this week’s mini-episode-extravaganza that we call The 4B Flight. In case you missed what’s going on here, we’re releasing a new mini-episode of Four Brewers everyday for a week. Why? Because we like you.

2010 Rare Bourbon County Brand Stout

If you’re familiar with the very much frowned upon “craft beer black market”, then you know how much moolah this bottle can fetch. It’s a ridiculous amount. This is a beer Johnhas held on to for the last six years, and rather than succumb to greed and unethical activity, he decided to open his ultra-whale, a 2010 Bourbon County Brand Stout Rare.

Things got a little weird on this episode. Feathers were ruffled (just a little bit, though) on both sides of the 4B studio table, but in the end, we all agree that it’s a great beer, but certainly NOT worth selling a kidney for.

We are back with the fourth of six episodes for this week’s mini-episode-extravaganza that we call The 4B Flight. In case you missed what’s going on here, we’re releasing a new mini-episode of Four Brewers everyday for a week. Why? Because we like you.

2010 Rare Bourbon County Brand Stout

If you’re familiar with the very much frowned upon “craft beer black market”, then you know how much moolah this bottle can fetch. It’s a ridiculous amount. This is a beer Johnhas held on to for the last six years, and rather than succumb to greed and unethical activity, he decided to open his ultra-whale, a 2010 Bourbon County Brand Stout Rare.

Things got a little weird on this episode. Feathers were ruffled (just a little bit, though) on both sides of the 4B studio table, but in the end, we all agree that it’s a great beer, but certainly NOT worth selling a kidney for.

We are back with the third of six episodes for this week’s mini-episode-extravaganza that we call The 4B Flight. In case you missed what’s going on here, we’re releasing a new mini-episode of Four Brewers everyday for a week. Why? Because we like you.

Prairie and Trve Collaboration Beer

Today’s beer is a special treat from Prairie Artisan Ales, made with their brothers and sisters in beer and metal (?), Trve Brewing out of Colorado. Coming in at 6.66% ABV (of course), this sour is a red ale made with black salt, peaches, brettanomyces and all kinds of other fun stuff. It’s quite interesting, and we all have differing opinions of the beer, and interesting beer makes for a hopefully interesting show.

We are back with the third of six episodes for this week’s mini-episode-extravaganza that we call The 4B Flight. In case you missed what’s going on here, we’re releasing a new mini-episode of Four Brewers everyday for a week. Why? Because we like you.

Prairie and Trve Collaboration Beer

Today’s beer is a special treat from Prairie Artisan Ales, made with their brothers and sisters in beer and metal (?), Trve Brewing out of Colorado. Coming in at 6.66% ABV (of course), this sour is a red ale made with black salt, peaches, brettanomyces and all kinds of other fun stuff. It’s quite interesting, and we all have differing opinions of the beer, and interesting beer makes for a hopefully interesting show.

We are back with the second of six episodes for this week’s mini-episode-extravaganza that we call The 4B Flight. In case you missed what’s going on here, we’re releasing a new mini-episode of Four Brewers everyday for a week. Why? Because we like you.

Mammoth Brewing Company – Gooseberry Sour

Today’s beer is a favorite of Matt’s and is certainly right up his alley, Mammoth Brewing Company’sGooseberry Sour. Matt has a cherished relationship with Gooseberries, going all the way back to his days at The Bruery where he was a brewer. Spoiler alert: Gooseberries and sour beer go together quite well…

Mammoth Brewing Company is best known for its annual Bluesapalooza beer festival that’s held in Mammoth Lakes, CA. This year, the fest is August 4-7.

]]>The 4B Flight, Episode 2 – Today on The 4B Flight, we go full Gooseberry with this sour from Mammoth Brewing Company.

We are back with the second of six episodes for this week’s mini-episode-extravaganza that we call The 4B Flight. In case you missed what’s going on here, we’re releasing a new mini-episode of Four Brewers everyday for a week. Why? Because we like you.

Mammoth Brewing Company – Gooseberry Sour

Today’s beer is a favorite of Matt’s and is certainly right up his alley, Mammoth Brewing Company’sGooseberry Sour. Matt has a cherished relationship with Gooseberries, going all the way back to his days at The Bruery where he was a brewer. Spoiler alert: Gooseberries and sour beer go together quite well…

Mammoth Brewing Company is best known for its annual Bluesapalooza beer festival that’s held in Mammoth Lakes, CA. This year, the fest is August 4-7.

Over the last couple of years, we heard from fans of the show that they wished we could release an episode everyday. While that’s flattering and awesome that these super-fans want to hear us on a daily basis, it’s simply impossible for us to release a full episode everyday.

But, we had a really cool idea. (It’s an experiment, too.) We want to give the fans exactly what they want, but on our terms. So, we are going to release one full-length regular episode on Monday, and 6 mini-episodes everyday for one week. Pretty cool, right? Well, we’re excited about it!

First Things First

The first beer in The 4B Flight is a special one from our friends at Monkish Brewing Co.. Known for their spectacular Belgian-style beers, Monkish vowed early on to never make IPA (well, maybe it wasn’t that dramatic).

But, times change and hops were piling up in the brewery. Henry and Co. decided that they shouldn’t be bound by these artificial rules imposed upon themselves (again, with the drama) and decided to bring their version of an IPA into this world, with some help from Brooklyn’s Other Half Brewing.

The beer went on sale this past weekend and was an instant sell out. Monkish was kind enough to give us the homie hookup with some cans of their new IPA, First Things First. We felt it was appropriate to feature this awesome IPA on the first episode of The 4B Flight.

]]>The 4B Flight, Episode 1 – Today we begin The 4B Flight, a solid week of new Four Brewers episodes! We’re kicking it off with Monkish Brewing Co.’s collaboration IPA with Other Half Brewing, First Things First.

Over the last couple of years, we heard from fans of the show that they wished we could release an episode everyday. While that’s flattering and awesome that these super-fans want to hear us on a daily basis, it’s simply impossible for us to release a full episode everyday.

But, we had a really cool idea. (It’s an experiment, too.) We want to give the fans exactly what they want, but on our terms. So, we are going to release one full-length regular episode on Monday, and 6 mini-episodes everyday for one week. Pretty cool, right? Well, we’re excited about it!

First Things First

The first beer in The 4B Flight is a special one from our friends at Monkish Brewing Co.. Known for their spectacular Belgian-style beers, Monkish vowed early on to never make IPA (well, maybe it wasn’t that dramatic).

But, times change and hops were piling up in the brewery. Henry and Co. decided that they shouldn’t be bound by these artificial rules imposed upon themselves (again, with the drama) and decided to bring their version of an IPA into this world, with some help from Brooklyn’s Other Half Brewing.

The beer went on sale this past weekend and was an instant sell out. Monkish was kind enough to give us the homie hookup with some cans of their new IPA, First Things First. We felt it was appropriate to feature this awesome IPA on the first episode of The 4B Flight.

Craft beer is awesome, isn’t it? Today, we’re drinking and talking about the beers that converted us from fizzy yellow lager drinkers to the beer geeks we are today.

Our Gateway Beers

Most of us have been there: you decide that you want to try something different, or a friend offers you their favorite craft beer to try, or maybe you didn’t even know what you were ordering from that pushy bartender with an bad attitude and…BAM!

“What’s this? This is great!”

It’s a magical moment. You’ll soon find out that your taste buds will never be the same, and you’re now part of the mystical and wondrous world of craft beer…or…you just really liked that IPA you just had and want another pint.

Craft beer is awesome, isn’t it? Today, we’re drinking and talking about the beers that converted us from fizzy yellow lager drinkers to the beer geeks we are today.

Our Gateway Beers

Most of us have been there: you decide that you want to try something different, or a friend offers you their favorite craft beer to try, or maybe you didn’t even know what you were ordering from that pushy bartender with an bad attitude and…BAM!

“What’s this? This is great!”

It’s a magical moment. You’ll soon find out that your taste buds will never be the same, and you’re now part of the mystical and wondrous world of craft beer…or…you just really liked that IPA you just had and want another pint.

]]>52:47yes[S3/E13] Cellar Diving with John, Port Brewing, and The Lost AbbeySun, 27 Mar 2016 23:00:00 +0000Season 3, Episode 13 – We didn’t really have a show planned out for this week, so we decided to raid John’s cellar.

Sometimes, you just want to head into your beer cellar, dust off some bottles, and see what happens. This week, that’s exactly what we did. If you’re a long time listener of Four Brewers, you’ve heard about John’s bloated cellar and the black hole of beers within. Since we didn’t really have anything planned for this week’s episode, John and Greg decided to brave the closet, no, uh, “cellar” and see what they could find.

Port Brewing and Lost Abbey

So, what did they find? Turns out that John has a lot of brews from Port Brewing and The Lost Abbey. The beers they chose are among some of the best whalez out there, even for our beloved “new-money” craft beer drinkers.

The thing is, when you cellar a beer, you take a monetary risk. While most breweries would agree that beers are packaged to be consumed fresh (unless you’re Deschutes), beer geeks can’t resist laying a beer down for a while to see how it changes and develops. It becomes a monetary loss when the beer is cellared for a bit too long and takes on the qualities of an over-cellared beer. This week’s episode shows that with great power comes great responsibility. When cellaring beers, it’s important to monitor them in order to drink them when they’re at their prime. If they sit too long, well, they could turn into a hot mess. The beers on this week’s episode are a testament to both scenarios.

Nagel comes through in the end with a stellar barrel-aged cider that he made. Seriously, guys…it’s the best thing he’s ever brewed. Hit him up for the recipe because holy shit…

]]>Season 3, Episode 13 – We didn’t really have a show planned out for this week, so we decided to raid John’s cellar.

Sometimes, you just want to head into your beer cellar, dust off some bottles, and see what happens. This week, that’s exactly what we did. If you’re a long time listener of Four Brewers, you’ve heard about John’s bloated cellar and the black hole of beers within. Since we didn’t really have anything planned for this week’s episode, John and Greg decided to brave the closet, no, uh, “cellar” and see what they could find.

Port Brewing and Lost Abbey

So, what did they find? Turns out that John has a lot of brews from Port Brewing and The Lost Abbey. The beers they chose are among some of the best whalez out there, even for our beloved “new-money” craft beer drinkers.

The thing is, when you cellar a beer, you take a monetary risk. While most breweries would agree that beers are packaged to be consumed fresh (unless you’re Deschutes), beer geeks can’t resist laying a beer down for a while to see how it changes and develops. It becomes a monetary loss when the beer is cellared for a bit too long and takes on the qualities of an over-cellared beer. This week’s episode shows that with great power comes great responsibility. When cellaring beers, it’s important to monitor them in order to drink them when they’re at their prime. If they sit too long, well, they could turn into a hot mess. The beers on this week’s episode are a testament to both scenarios.

Nagel comes through in the end with a stellar barrel-aged cider that he made. Seriously, guys…it’s the best thing he’s ever brewed. Hit him up for the recipe because holy shit…

]]>45:08yes[S3/E12] Tired Hands Brewing CompanySun, 20 Mar 2016 22:59:53 +0000Season 3, Episode 12 – This week, we try to figure out exactly why Tired Hands Brewing Company’s hands are so tired. Spoiler: we still don’t know, but you should still listen to the episode.

This week on the show, we’re drinking beers from the whalez-bro-brewery outta Pennsylvania known as Tired Hands Brewing Company. Their beers are difficult to get in SoCal (they don’t distribute here), but our good friend, Dr. Zack, came up on a massive shipment and was kind enough to share some cans with us. SWEET.

Their Hands are Tired AF, Apparently.

Before we get into the beers, we open up the 4B Mailbag and answer some questions about dry-hopping and where to acquire some good beer in Cleveland, Ohio. Want to send us a question? Hit us up at feedback@fourbrewers.com.

First up is Hop Hands. Without giving too much away, this beer was the best of the bunch. It should be said that all three beers that we sampled were murkier than potato soup, which was to be expected, I guess. They were all served from cans (ICYMI above) and were all consumed within about three weeks of the canning date. Just remember that while you’re listening to the episode.

Next up is Pineal. Matt explains to us exactly what the word “Pineal” means on the show, so don’t bother to Google the definition or anything. Just listen to the show, because that’s why were here, right? Sure! This beer was, um, well…it was good, but had its flaws, to say the least.

We end the show with Alien Church, and I’m not going to say anything more about that beer.

]]>Season 3, Episode 12 – This week, we try to figure out exactly why Tired Hands Brewing Company’s hands are so tired. Spoiler: we still don’t know, but you should still listen to the episode.

This week on the show, we’re drinking beers from the whalez-bro-brewery outta Pennsylvania known as Tired Hands Brewing Company. Their beers are difficult to get in SoCal (they don’t distribute here), but our good friend, Dr. Zack, came up on a massive shipment and was kind enough to share some cans with us. SWEET.

Their Hands are Tired AF, Apparently.

Before we get into the beers, we open up the 4B Mailbag and answer some questions about dry-hopping and where to acquire some good beer in Cleveland, Ohio. Want to send us a question? Hit us up at feedback@fourbrewers.com.

First up is Hop Hands. Without giving too much away, this beer was the best of the bunch. It should be said that all three beers that we sampled were murkier than potato soup, which was to be expected, I guess. They were all served from cans (ICYMI above) and were all consumed within about three weeks of the canning date. Just remember that while you’re listening to the episode.

Next up is Pineal. Matt explains to us exactly what the word “Pineal” means on the show, so don’t bother to Google the definition or anything. Just listen to the show, because that’s why were here, right? Sure! This beer was, um, well…it was good, but had its flaws, to say the least.

We end the show with Alien Church, and I’m not going to say anything more about that beer.

]]>53:51yes[S3/E11] Modern Times and Modem TonesTue, 15 Mar 2016 03:01:56 +0000Season 3, Episode 11 – This week, Jason brought us so many beers from Modern Times…and it’s awesome.

Get your Four Brewers “Metal Logo” shirt!Sales end Tuesday (3.15.16) evening!Available for a limited time: fourbrewers.com/metal

Before we get into the beers, it should be known that Greg’s cask ale festival called “Firkfest” is going down on March 19, 2016 in Anaheim, California. We’ve been promoting this event for good reason—it’s a unique festival to Southern California, featuring 30 breweries and 50 cask beers, ranging from the more traditional cask conditioned beers to firkins with chocolate, peppers, or whatever else brewers want to add to their standard release and one-off beers. Get your tickets at firkfest.com.

Bottle Logic Beers in Cans

We’re drinking a lot of Modern Times beers on the show this week, 12 beers to be exact, which makes this show one of the longest 4B episodes yet. Jason is the resident Four Brewers Modem Tones super-fan, and he did not fail to deliver some Modem Whalez.

…and These Modern Times Beers are in Bottles!

Having 12 beers on one show makes it difficult to properly summarize the episode. Some of them are funky, some are hoppy, some are barrel-aged, and some are sour. Jason is a member of Modern Times’ “League of Partygoers and Elegant People” so naturally, he brought some good stuff.

Modern Times is an all around great brewery. They have a great attitude toward beer, experimentation, and quality, and it shows in their beer. While they’ve had a few missteps here and there, their commitment to quality craft beer and their fans is unquestionably passionate.

]]>Season 3, Episode 11 – This week, Jason brought us so many beers from Modern Times…and it’s awesome.

Get your Four Brewers “Metal Logo” shirt!Sales end Tuesday (3.15.16) evening!Available for a limited time: fourbrewers.com/metal

Before we get into the beers, it should be known that Greg’s cask ale festival called “Firkfest” is going down on March 19, 2016 in Anaheim, California. We’ve been promoting this event for good reason—it’s a unique festival to Southern California, featuring 30 breweries and 50 cask beers, ranging from the more traditional cask conditioned beers to firkins with chocolate, peppers, or whatever else brewers want to add to their standard release and one-off beers. Get your tickets at firkfest.com.

Bottle Logic Beers in Cans

We’re drinking a lot of Modern Times beers on the show this week, 12 beers to be exact, which makes this show one of the longest 4B episodes yet. Jason is the resident Four Brewers Modem Tones super-fan, and he did not fail to deliver some Modem Whalez.

…and These Modern Times Beers are in Bottles!

Having 12 beers on one show makes it difficult to properly summarize the episode. Some of them are funky, some are hoppy, some are barrel-aged, and some are sour. Jason is a member of Modern Times’ “League of Partygoers and Elegant People” so naturally, he brought some good stuff.

Modern Times is an all around great brewery. They have a great attitude toward beer, experimentation, and quality, and it shows in their beer. While they’ve had a few missteps here and there, their commitment to quality craft beer and their fans is unquestionably passionate.

Before we get into the beers, it should be known that Greg’s cask ale festival called “Firkfest” is going down on March 19, 2016 in Anaheim, California. We’ve been promoting this event for good reason—it’s a unique festival to Southern California, featuring 30 breweries and 50 cask beers, ranginga from the more traditional cask conditioned beers to firkins with chocolate, peppers, or whatever else brewers want to add to their standard release and one-off beers. Get your tickets at firkfest.com.

Barrels at Bottle Logic Brewing

We kick off the show right where we left off with part 1, drinking some German Chocolate Cake. The beer lives up to its namesake, and we find out that this beer is also what runs through Nagel’s veins (he’s German…bad joke). This beer is served on both nitro and CO2 at Bottle Logic’s tasting room, which is a common practice of Bottle Logic. Good idea for those who don’t enjoy nitrogen infused brew.

While we’re drinking this beer, we discuss the unique technique that Bottle Logic employs to add ingredients like cacao nibs, vanilla, and even wood to their beers while they’re still in the fermentor.

Moar Barrels!

Next up is a beer that has yet to be released, Bottle Logic’s brettanomyces brew, Some Assembly Required. The bottle we had on the show was midway through its bottle conditioning and a bit warm, so it was a bit explosive. This didn’t stop us from thoroughly enjoying the beer. Definitely a unicorn worth capturing when Bottle Logic releases it.

Finally, the moment you’ve all been waiting for, a barrel sample of the renowned Bottle Logic barrel-aged stout, Fundamental Observation. This beer rocks! This was only a barrel sample we had on the show—it was flat and room temperature—and it was already amazing. F.O. is no hype-whale, it’s the real deal, from what we could taste, and this was only a single barrel sample. While enjoying this beer, we talk about how Bottle Logic designs a beer that is destined to be barrel-aged. It’s not as simple as making a stellar stout and throwing in a barrel.

Big, BIG thanks to Wes and Brandon for having us at Bottle Logic. They’re off to a great start for a two year-old brewery, and we couldn’t be more proud to have them brewing their beer in Southern California.

Before we get into the beers, it should be known that Greg’s cask ale festival called “Firkfest” is going down on March 19, 2016 in Anaheim, California. We’ve been promoting this event for good reason—it’s a unique festival to Southern California, featuring 30 breweries and 50 cask beers, ranginga from the more traditional cask conditioned beers to firkins with chocolate, peppers, or whatever else brewers want to add to their standard release and one-off beers. Get your tickets at firkfest.com.

Barrels at Bottle Logic Brewing

We kick off the show right where we left off with part 1, drinking some German Chocolate Cake. The beer lives up to its namesake, and we find out that this beer is also what runs through Nagel’s veins (he’s German…bad joke). This beer is served on both nitro and CO2 at Bottle Logic’s tasting room, which is a common practice of Bottle Logic. Good idea for those who don’t enjoy nitrogen infused brew.

While we’re drinking this beer, we discuss the unique technique that Bottle Logic employs to add ingredients like cacao nibs, vanilla, and even wood to their beers while they’re still in the fermentor.

Moar Barrels!

Next up is a beer that has yet to be released, Bottle Logic’s brettanomyces brew, Some Assembly Required. The bottle we had on the show was midway through its bottle conditioning and a bit warm, so it was a bit explosive. This didn’t stop us from thoroughly enjoying the beer. Definitely a unicorn worth capturing when Bottle Logic releases it.

Finally, the moment you’ve all been waiting for, a barrel sample of the renowned Bottle Logic barrel-aged stout, Fundamental Observation. This beer rocks! This was only a barrel sample we had on the show—it was flat and room temperature—and it was already amazing. F.O. is no hype-whale, it’s the real deal, from what we could taste, and this was only a single barrel sample. While enjoying this beer, we talk about how Bottle Logic designs a beer that is destined to be barrel-aged. It’s not as simple as making a stellar stout and throwing in a barrel.

Big, BIG thanks to Wes and Brandon for having us at Bottle Logic. They’re off to a great start for a two year-old brewery, and we couldn’t be more proud to have them brewing their beer in Southern California.

Before we get into the beers, it should be known that Greg’s cask ale festival called “Firkfest” is going down on March 19, 2016 in Anaheim, California. We’ve been promoting this event for good reason—it’s a unique festival to Southern California, featuring 30 breweries and 50 cask beers, ranging from the more traditional cask conditioned beers to firkins with chocolate, peppers, or whatever else brewers want to add to their standard release and one-off beers. Get your tickets at firkfest.com.

Beers From Bottle Logic Brewing

Shooting each other in the junk with laser beams sounded like fun at the time, but drinking Bottle Logic Brewing beers in their barrel room seemed like a better idea. Speaking of shooting each other in the junk with lasers, it turns out that She Shot First with galaxy, citra and centennial in our gaping, carbonite mouths. Although hoppy wheats may be known for their modern unfortunate landmass times, this beer was birthed on the homestove of Bottle Logic Master Brewer Wes Parker. “Juicy,” says Four Brewers’ Jason Harris, otherwise known as Internet’s Golden Brett, in a nasally, high-pitched voice.

Zerø Day juices our mouths with Vermont-style IPA cloud beer. Juice profiles are dialed in, maximum hoppage is achieved, targets are hit, and montages are played with sweaty Bottle Logic brewers listening to “I Need a Hero.” The beer looks like a yellow pair of Juicy Couture sweat pants got dipped in freshly dry hopped beer and wrung out into pint glasses. But, oh if it ain’t juicy and supremely delicious.

Before we get into the beers, it should be known that Greg’s cask ale festival called “Firkfest” is going down on March 19, 2016 in Anaheim, California. We’ve been promoting this event for good reason—it’s a unique festival to Southern California, featuring 30 breweries and 50 cask beers, ranging from the more traditional cask conditioned beers to firkins with chocolate, peppers, or whatever else brewers want to add to their standard release and one-off beers. Get your tickets at firkfest.com.

Beers From Bottle Logic Brewing

Shooting each other in the junk with laser beams sounded like fun at the time, but drinking Bottle Logic Brewing beers in their barrel room seemed like a better idea. Speaking of shooting each other in the junk with lasers, it turns out that She Shot First with galaxy, citra and centennial in our gaping, carbonite mouths. Although hoppy wheats may be known for their modern unfortunate landmass times, this beer was birthed on the homestove of Bottle Logic Master Brewer Wes Parker. “Juicy,” says Four Brewers’ Jason Harris, otherwise known as Internet’s Golden Brett, in a nasally, high-pitched voice.

Zerø Day juices our mouths with Vermont-style IPA cloud beer. Juice profiles are dialed in, maximum hoppage is achieved, targets are hit, and montages are played with sweaty Bottle Logic brewers listening to “I Need a Hero.” The beer looks like a yellow pair of Juicy Couture sweat pants got dipped in freshly dry hopped beer and wrung out into pint glasses. But, oh if it ain’t juicy and supremely delicious.

Before we get into the beers, it should be known that Greg’s cask ale festival called “Firkfest” is going down on March 19, 2016 in Anaheim, California. We’ve been promoting this event for good reason—it’s a unique festival to Southern California, featuring 50 breweries and 30 cask beers, ranging from the more traditional cask conditioned beers to firkins with chocolate, peppers, or whatever else brewers want to add to their standard release and one-off beers. Get your tickets at firkfest.com.

Excellent Brews from Perennial and Night Shift.

First up on the show this week is a brew from Night Shift Brewing, a gose made with oysters. Oysters are more commonly used in stouts to add a salty, briny/dry character. In this case, they were added during the boil of the gose, which is a beer style that is inherently salty. Adding the brine character from oysters is a natural fit for the gose style of beer.

Next up is another gose made by Perennial Artisan Ales, but this one goes (oh, words) in a different direction. This beer also has a tart, salty quality, but is made with lemon peel and orange peel, along with a healthy dose of key lime juice. This beer is great—a true summer seeeper.

We wrap up with two more Night Shift beers, Ever Weisse (radness) and Maracuya. Night Shift is reminiscent of The Bruery in terms of their curious exploration and their quality execution of unusual beer styles. At the same time, Perennial is also kicking ass and taking names. We can get Perennial in SoCal right now, but Night Shift would be a welcome addition…just saying’.

Before we get into the beers, it should be known that Greg’s cask ale festival called “Firkfest” is going down on March 19, 2016 in Anaheim, California. We’ve been promoting this event for good reason—it’s a unique festival to Southern California, featuring 50 breweries and 30 cask beers, ranging from the more traditional cask conditioned beers to firkins with chocolate, peppers, or whatever else brewers want to add to their standard release and one-off beers. Get your tickets at firkfest.com.

Excellent Brews from Perennial and Night Shift.

First up on the show this week is a brew from Night Shift Brewing, a gose made with oysters. Oysters are more commonly used in stouts to add a salty, briny/dry character. In this case, they were added during the boil of the gose, which is a beer style that is inherently salty. Adding the brine character from oysters is a natural fit for the gose style of beer.

Next up is another gose made by Perennial Artisan Ales, but this one goes (oh, words) in a different direction. This beer also has a tart, salty quality, but is made with lemon peel and orange peel, along with a healthy dose of key lime juice. This beer is great—a true summer seeeper.

We wrap up with two more Night Shift beers, Ever Weisse (radness) and Maracuya. Night Shift is reminiscent of The Bruery in terms of their curious exploration and their quality execution of unusual beer styles. At the same time, Perennial is also kicking ass and taking names. We can get Perennial in SoCal right now, but Night Shift would be a welcome addition…just saying’.

Can homebrews be whalez? This is the question that Four Brewers listener, Michael Kirshner, proposed to us in an email a few weeks ago. Personally speaking, I’ve definitely wanted to spear a few local homebrew whalez that have become legendary over the years, so yes, homebrew can indeed venture into the “whalez” territory.

Thar Be Whalez!

Michael was kind enough to send us some of his homebrew for the show this week and suffice to say, they are pretty over the top, as far as homebrew goes. The first beer up is a Flanders Red that was aged in a second use Buffalo Trace Barrel for five freakin’ years! What?! That’s some commitment.

Next up is quad that was brewed in March of 2014. This beer is a crowd favorite according to Mike, and rightly so. It’s delicious!

The last beer from Michael is a Russian imperial stout made with oats and lactose sugar that was brewed in November of 2014 and aged for six months in a fresh Four Roses barrel. Michael wasn’t lying when he told us he was sending whalez…thar she blows!

The Messenger

We wrap up the show with an awesome collaboration beer between two stellar southern California breweries, Noble Ale Works and Three Weavers Brewing Company called, The Messenger. This beer was first brewed early in 2014. The Messenger is a seasonal release IPA coming in at 7.3% ABV, made with Weyermann pilsner malt and dry hopped with Pacific Jade, El Dorado, and HBC 342 hops. The bottle we have on the show this week was made with Buddha’s Hand and Yuzu to really give it a fruity, tropical zing.

]]>Season 3, Episode 7 – This week, homebrew from Four Brewers listener Michael Kirshner, and The Messenger from Noble Ale Works and Three Weavers Brewing Company.

Can homebrews be whalez? This is the question that Four Brewers listener, Michael Kirshner, proposed to us in an email a few weeks ago. Personally speaking, I’ve definitely wanted to spear a few local homebrew whalez that have become legendary over the years, so yes, homebrew can indeed venture into the “whalez” territory.

Thar Be Whalez!

Michael was kind enough to send us some of his homebrew for the show this week and suffice to say, they are pretty over the top, as far as homebrew goes. The first beer up is a Flanders Red that was aged in a second use Buffalo Trace Barrel for five freakin’ years! What?! That’s some commitment.

Next up is quad that was brewed in March of 2014. This beer is a crowd favorite according to Mike, and rightly so. It’s delicious!

The last beer from Michael is a Russian imperial stout made with oats and lactose sugar that was brewed in November of 2014 and aged for six months in a fresh Four Roses barrel. Michael wasn’t lying when he told us he was sending whalez…thar she blows!

The Messenger

We wrap up the show with an awesome collaboration beer between two stellar southern California breweries, Noble Ale Works and Three Weavers Brewing Company called, The Messenger. This beer was first brewed early in 2014. The Messenger is a seasonal release IPA coming in at 7.3% ABV, made with Weyermann pilsner malt and dry hopped with Pacific Jade, El Dorado, and HBC 342 hops. The bottle we have on the show this week was made with Buddha’s Hand and Yuzu to really give it a fruity, tropical zing.

This week, we’ve got seven beers from Surly Brewing Company that were sent to us by a gracious Four Brewers listener, as well as a super-whale from John’s cellar, a 2010 vintage Darkness. Hell. YES.

Surly Brewing Company

Surly Brewing makes great beer, hands down. The problem is, they don’t distribute very far outside of their home state of Minnesota. Granted, we have no shortage of great beer here in California, but Surly would definitely be a welcome addition.

We have a variety of their canned brews, ranging from lager, to brown ale, to IPA. Surly has their own unique style and attitude. They know their way around a brew house, for sure. They’re also fans of John’s favorite ingredient, oats. It’s used in a lot of their beers.

Surly Brewing Company’s Darkness (2010)

As the show progresses, Surly’s Russian imperial stout, Darkness, eventually comes up in the discussion. It just so happens that John has two bottles of the 2010 vintage in his beer cellar, one of which was kept refrigerated for the last few years. This is important because keeping a beer cold tends to preserve it longer and lock in flavors. Jason and Matt recently had the 2010 Darkness at a bottle share, and said the beer was past its prime. How is it holding up? Listen and find out!

]]>Season 3, Episode 6 – This week, ALL SURLY BREWING COMPANY BEERS. Well, most of them. OK, eight of them.

This week, we’ve got seven beers from Surly Brewing Company that were sent to us by a gracious Four Brewers listener, as well as a super-whale from John’s cellar, a 2010 vintage Darkness. Hell. YES.

Surly Brewing Company

Surly Brewing makes great beer, hands down. The problem is, they don’t distribute very far outside of their home state of Minnesota. Granted, we have no shortage of great beer here in California, but Surly would definitely be a welcome addition.

We have a variety of their canned brews, ranging from lager, to brown ale, to IPA. Surly has their own unique style and attitude. They know their way around a brew house, for sure. They’re also fans of John’s favorite ingredient, oats. It’s used in a lot of their beers.

Surly Brewing Company’s Darkness (2010)

As the show progresses, Surly’s Russian imperial stout, Darkness, eventually comes up in the discussion. It just so happens that John has two bottles of the 2010 vintage in his beer cellar, one of which was kept refrigerated for the last few years. This is important because keeping a beer cold tends to preserve it longer and lock in flavors. Jason and Matt recently had the 2010 Darkness at a bottle share, and said the beer was past its prime. How is it holding up? Listen and find out!

This week, it’s all about Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.. For over 30 years, they’ve been innovators in the craft beer movement in America, producing some the most ubiquitous beers on the market.

We have ten different beers on the show this week from Sierra Nevada. While that may sound like a lot (well, it is for this little podcast), it’s actually just a cross section of the many brews they make. We’re covering everything from their more recent release, Nooner Pilsner, to the classic and well-known Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.

Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. Beers

Sierra Nevada is also no stranger to barrel-aging beers and collaboration brews. Two of their abbey collaboration beers are on the show this week, along with barrel-aged variants of their Bigfoot Barleywine-Style Ale and Narwhal Imperial Stout.

Sierra Nevada brews all of their beers with whole cone hops. If you’re not familiar with the brewing process, most breweries use compressed hop pellets in their beers. Pellets are easier to work with, easier to store, and retain their freshness longer than whole cone hops. Using whole cone hops requires a different kind of brewhouse and they also impart different qualities. These whole cone hops and Sierra Nevada’s “Chico Yeast” house strain give their hoppy pales and IPAs a unique touch that screams “Sierra Nevada!”

Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. Collaboration and Barrel-Aged Beers

Sierra Nevada’s beers are widely available. If haven’t had a lot from them, pick up a few different beers and give them a shot…maybe with a Torpedo? hahah—yeah, no.

This week, it’s all about Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.. For over 30 years, they’ve been innovators in the craft beer movement in America, producing some the most ubiquitous beers on the market.

We have ten different beers on the show this week from Sierra Nevada. While that may sound like a lot (well, it is for this little podcast), it’s actually just a cross section of the many brews they make. We’re covering everything from their more recent release, Nooner Pilsner, to the classic and well-known Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.

Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. Beers

Sierra Nevada is also no stranger to barrel-aging beers and collaboration brews. Two of their abbey collaboration beers are on the show this week, along with barrel-aged variants of their Bigfoot Barleywine-Style Ale and Narwhal Imperial Stout.

Sierra Nevada brews all of their beers with whole cone hops. If you’re not familiar with the brewing process, most breweries use compressed hop pellets in their beers. Pellets are easier to work with, easier to store, and retain their freshness longer than whole cone hops. Using whole cone hops requires a different kind of brewhouse and they also impart different qualities. These whole cone hops and Sierra Nevada’s “Chico Yeast” house strain give their hoppy pales and IPAs a unique touch that screams “Sierra Nevada!”

Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. Collaboration and Barrel-Aged Beers

Sierra Nevada’s beers are widely available. If haven’t had a lot from them, pick up a few different beers and give them a shot…maybe with a Torpedo? hahah—yeah, no.

]]>01:08:00yes[S3/E4] Glasswhalez: Style-Specific Beer GlasswareSun, 24 Jan 2016 23:25:58 +0000Season 3, Episode 4 – Does the shape and size of a glass really affect a beer’s characteristics? This week, we try to find out for ourselves.

Does glassware make a difference when it comes to truly enjoying a craft beer? Glasses designed for more traditional beer styles have been around for a long time and it’s believed that they enhance certain characteristics of the beers that are consumed from them. Seasoned beer drinkers know that drinking a beer out of a glass is an overall better experience when compared to drinking straight from the bottle, even if it’s a standard “shaker” glass that brewers tend to despise. Well known beer establishments still serve beer in shaker glasses, despite the claims that the physical shape of the glass is doing a disservice to the beer inside of it.

Style-Specific Beer Glassware

Recently, beer glassware has reached a new level. IPA, stout, and even American wheat beers can now be served in style-specific glassware that supposedly enhances their qualities and nuances in certain ways. This week, we’re putting these glasses to the test.

Disclaimer: all four of us on the show believe glassware affects beer perception. We tend to use the Libbey 3807 Belgian-style beer glass as our daily driver for consuming beer. Generally speaking, it’s a suitable glass for a wide variety of beers.

Tattoo: Jesse Friedman of Almanac Beer Co. – NO SHAKER GLASSES

This week, we’ve got four different glasses that were designed for four different beer styles: a pilsner glass, a hefeweizen glass, a stout glass, and an IPA glass. The manufacturers of each glass claim that they are designed to make the specific style of beer that’s inside the glass shine in different ways. Are the claims true? Is there a science to “proper” glassware?

]]>Season 3, Episode 4 – Does the shape and size of a glass really affect a beer’s characteristics? This week, we try to find out for ourselves.

Does glassware make a difference when it comes to truly enjoying a craft beer? Glasses designed for more traditional beer styles have been around for a long time and it’s believed that they enhance certain characteristics of the beers that are consumed from them. Seasoned beer drinkers know that drinking a beer out of a glass is an overall better experience when compared to drinking straight from the bottle, even if it’s a standard “shaker” glass that brewers tend to despise. Well known beer establishments still serve beer in shaker glasses, despite the claims that the physical shape of the glass is doing a disservice to the beer inside of it.

Style-Specific Beer Glassware

Recently, beer glassware has reached a new level. IPA, stout, and even American wheat beers can now be served in style-specific glassware that supposedly enhances their qualities and nuances in certain ways. This week, we’re putting these glasses to the test.

Disclaimer: all four of us on the show believe glassware affects beer perception. We tend to use the Libbey 3807 Belgian-style beer glass as our daily driver for consuming beer. Generally speaking, it’s a suitable glass for a wide variety of beers.

Tattoo: Jesse Friedman of Almanac Beer Co. – NO SHAKER GLASSES

This week, we’ve got four different glasses that were designed for four different beer styles: a pilsner glass, a hefeweizen glass, a stout glass, and an IPA glass. The manufacturers of each glass claim that they are designed to make the specific style of beer that’s inside the glass shine in different ways. Are the claims true? Is there a science to “proper” glassware?

]]>01:14:40yes[S3/E3] I Once Was Lost, But Now I'm FoundersTue, 19 Jan 2016 02:35:04 +0000Season 3, Episode 3 – This week, beers from Founders Brewing Co., and Going In Blind with Matt.

Michigan. More great beer from Michigan.

Founders Brewing Co. is finally available in southern California, and we’re pretty stoked about it. Founders is a well known brewery among craft beer drinkers, brewing everything from hoppy IPAs to delicious, highly sought after bourbon barrel-aged stouts. Getting our hands on their beers proved to be quite the difficult task in the past, but not anymore. This week on the show, we’re sampling a bit of each.

Founders Brewing Co.

We always seemed to find a way to get our hands on a few of their beers before they were available here by means of trading, which was kind of a pain in the ass. How rad is it that we’ll now be able to go to our local bottle shop and get it right off the shelf?! So. Rad.

Having Founders Brewing Co. beers on the show this week is a milestone that we are thrilled to arrive at. Huge thanks go out to Ze Beer Guy for getting these beers to us. He’s one of Founders’ newest sales reps here in southern California, and is well known in the beer geek community. He is the MAN!

One beer that we didn’t feature in this episode was Founders’ Project PAM. We drank the beer and recorded the conversation, but it’s only going to be available to supporters of 4B on Patreon and PayPal. Consider supporting the show if you’d like access to bonus stuff and free 4B merchandise.

Founders Brewing Co. is finally available in southern California, and we’re pretty stoked about it. Founders is a well known brewery among craft beer drinkers, brewing everything from hoppy IPAs to delicious, highly sought after bourbon barrel-aged stouts. Getting our hands on their beers proved to be quite the difficult task in the past, but not anymore. This week on the show, we’re sampling a bit of each.

Founders Brewing Co.

We always seemed to find a way to get our hands on a few of their beers before they were available here by means of trading, which was kind of a pain in the ass. How rad is it that we’ll now be able to go to our local bottle shop and get it right off the shelf?! So. Rad.

Having Founders Brewing Co. beers on the show this week is a milestone that we are thrilled to arrive at. Huge thanks go out to Ze Beer Guy for getting these beers to us. He’s one of Founders’ newest sales reps here in southern California, and is well known in the beer geek community. He is the MAN!

One beer that we didn’t feature in this episode was Founders’ Project PAM. We drank the beer and recorded the conversation, but it’s only going to be available to supporters of 4B on Patreon and PayPal. Consider supporting the show if you’d like access to bonus stuff and free 4B merchandise.

This week on the show, we’re drinking NINE different beers from Bell’s Brewery. For us in SoCal, that’s pretty awesome, considering they just recently added distribution to southern California (May, 2014) and we were able to buy all of these beers in our local bottle shops.

Bell’s Brewery Beers

Fuck. Yeah.

It would be quite tedious and redundant to go through and give a summary of every beer on the show this week, so I’m not going to do it. We tried to stick with more of the mainstream stuff from Bell’s that anyone could pickup in their area, if available (Saturn being the exception. That’s from Jason).

Bell’s Brewery has been around for a long time, 30+ years, in fact. It’s safe to say that they know how to make great beer that’s unique to them, in more ways than one.

Shout out to listener Dave V. for the email that inspired this show. Cheers, brother.

This week on the show, we’re drinking NINE different beers from Bell’s Brewery. For us in SoCal, that’s pretty awesome, considering they just recently added distribution to southern California (May, 2014) and we were able to buy all of these beers in our local bottle shops.

Bell’s Brewery Beers

Fuck. Yeah.

It would be quite tedious and redundant to go through and give a summary of every beer on the show this week, so I’m not going to do it. We tried to stick with more of the mainstream stuff from Bell’s that anyone could pickup in their area, if available (Saturn being the exception. That’s from Jason).

Bell’s Brewery has been around for a long time, 30+ years, in fact. It’s safe to say that they know how to make great beer that’s unique to them, in more ways than one.

Shout out to listener Dave V. for the email that inspired this show. Cheers, brother.

]]>01:08:00yes[S3/E1] Nagel is Pink On the InsideSun, 03 Jan 2016 23:44:26 +0000Season 3, Episode 1 – This week, we’re drinking three homebrews from Greg (two of them are pink!), and going in blind with John.

Welcome to 2016 and season 3 of Four Brewers! This week on the show, we’re drinking homebrew from Nagel and going in blind with some blind tasting action provided by John.

First up are two pink concoctions from Mr. Nagel. The first one is a cranberry Malbec wine cooler thingy. It should be noted that all of these brews were made by Greg for the holiday season to serve to guests in his home, and they’re all made from kits. The wine he made came as a kit with the grape juice, chemical additions, and cranberries, which makes for a really easy homebrew. Making kit wine is really easy. John wrote a piece on a Riesling wine he made from a kit a few years back. Check it out if you want a rundown on the process.

John’s Beers for “Going In Blind”

Next up is a prickly pear witbier, which was again, made from a kit. The prickly pears, however, were not included in the kit, and were acquired at Greg’s in-law’s house in Temecula. In case you don’t know what prickly pears are (like John), they are the fruit that grows on a certain variety of cactus. They’re very hard to work with, as Greg explains on the show.

The last brew from Greg is a milk stout that was originally intended to be a hard root beer, but in the end, the spicing didn’t quite work out. So, he ditched the root and kept the beer as is.

All in all, these beers (and wine) were quite tasty. The brew days for these were all fairly low key and didn’t require a whole lot of time and effort. Don’t diss the kit! As long as you keep everything that’s post-boil clean and sanitary, and pitch the proper amount of yeast while maintaining proper fermentation temperatures, you should be good to go and on your way to making a great kit beer or wine.

We conclude the show with a dive into the 4B mailbag, as well as another round of Going In Blind, hosted this time by John Holzer himself. Click on the blurred photo above to see the blind beers if you can’t handle the mystery and suspense…

]]>Season 3, Episode 1 – This week, we’re drinking three homebrews from Greg (two of them are pink!), and going in blind with John.

Welcome to 2016 and season 3 of Four Brewers! This week on the show, we’re drinking homebrew from Nagel and going in blind with some blind tasting action provided by John.

First up are two pink concoctions from Mr. Nagel. The first one is a cranberry Malbec wine cooler thingy. It should be noted that all of these brews were made by Greg for the holiday season to serve to guests in his home, and they’re all made from kits. The wine he made came as a kit with the grape juice, chemical additions, and cranberries, which makes for a really easy homebrew. Making kit wine is really easy. John wrote a piece on a Riesling wine he made from a kit a few years back. Check it out if you want a rundown on the process.

John’s Beers for “Going In Blind”

Next up is a prickly pear witbier, which was again, made from a kit. The prickly pears, however, were not included in the kit, and were acquired at Greg’s in-law’s house in Temecula. In case you don’t know what prickly pears are (like John), they are the fruit that grows on a certain variety of cactus. They’re very hard to work with, as Greg explains on the show.

The last brew from Greg is a milk stout that was originally intended to be a hard root beer, but in the end, the spicing didn’t quite work out. So, he ditched the root and kept the beer as is.

All in all, these beers (and wine) were quite tasty. The brew days for these were all fairly low key and didn’t require a whole lot of time and effort. Don’t diss the kit! As long as you keep everything that’s post-boil clean and sanitary, and pitch the proper amount of yeast while maintaining proper fermentation temperatures, you should be good to go and on your way to making a great kit beer or wine.

We conclude the show with a dive into the 4B mailbag, as well as another round of Going In Blind, hosted this time by John Holzer himself. Click on the blurred photo above to see the blind beers if you can’t handle the mystery and suspense…

]]>01:15:38yes[S2/E52] Death By XocovezaMon, 28 Dec 2015 02:18:35 +0000Season 2, Episode 52 – This week we conclude season 2 of Four Brewers with coconuts, stouts, barrels, and some good ol’ blind tasting, courtesy of Jason Harris.

Here we are. We made it! The final show of 2015, episode 52 of season 2. When I say “we made it”, I mean just that—all of us. Four Brewers wouldn’t be a thing without all of the support we get from beer geeks all over the world. We thank you all from from the bottom of our beer-soaked hearts. Thanks for listening and supporting the show. You’re all the best.

Barley Forge, Stone Brewing, and Oskar Blues Beers

We’re ending 2015 with a show that falls in line with classic 4B structure and fashion. We’re drinking a couple of whalez, blending some brews, doing some blind tasting, and having fun. That’s what this is all about, right? Having fun with friends and drinking great beer.

First up is a beer that’s making another appearance on the show, the coconut rye stout from our friends at Barley Forge Brewing Co., The Patsy. The first time we had this beer was on S2/E18 when we paid a visit to the Berly Ferge in Costa Mesa, California. We decided to bring it back because it’s Johns favorite beer of 2015, and Oskar Blues Brewery just released their coconut infused Irish porter named Death By Coconut. We wanted to compare the two beers side by side.

Next up are three variants of Stone Brewing Co.’s 2015 Xocoveza For the Holidays & The New Year (yes, that’s the full name), two of which are barrel-aged (Xocoveza Extra Añejo, and Xocoveza Charred). This beer was a hit when it debuted last year and this year was no different. Beer geeks all over the country were buying this beer buy the case, and rightly so, since it’s such a delicious, chocolatey and spicy brew.

We wrap up the show with a round of Going In Blind, hosted by Jason Harris. There’s also some 4B Mailbag shenanigans and Untappd beer ratings discussion thrown in for good measure.

We wish everyone a safe and happy 2016. Drink something good to ring in the new year and give someone a hug.

]]>Season 2, Episode 52 – This week we conclude season 2 of Four Brewers with coconuts, stouts, barrels, and some good ol’ blind tasting, courtesy of Jason Harris.

Here we are. We made it! The final show of 2015, episode 52 of season 2. When I say “we made it”, I mean just that—all of us. Four Brewers wouldn’t be a thing without all of the support we get from beer geeks all over the world. We thank you all from from the bottom of our beer-soaked hearts. Thanks for listening and supporting the show. You’re all the best.

Barley Forge, Stone Brewing, and Oskar Blues Beers

We’re ending 2015 with a show that falls in line with classic 4B structure and fashion. We’re drinking a couple of whalez, blending some brews, doing some blind tasting, and having fun. That’s what this is all about, right? Having fun with friends and drinking great beer.

First up is a beer that’s making another appearance on the show, the coconut rye stout from our friends at Barley Forge Brewing Co., The Patsy. The first time we had this beer was on S2/E18 when we paid a visit to the Berly Ferge in Costa Mesa, California. We decided to bring it back because it’s Johns favorite beer of 2015, and Oskar Blues Brewery just released their coconut infused Irish porter named Death By Coconut. We wanted to compare the two beers side by side.

Next up are three variants of Stone Brewing Co.’s 2015 Xocoveza For the Holidays & The New Year (yes, that’s the full name), two of which are barrel-aged (Xocoveza Extra Añejo, and Xocoveza Charred). This beer was a hit when it debuted last year and this year was no different. Beer geeks all over the country were buying this beer buy the case, and rightly so, since it’s such a delicious, chocolatey and spicy brew.

We wrap up the show with a round of Going In Blind, hosted by Jason Harris. There’s also some 4B Mailbag shenanigans and Untappd beer ratings discussion thrown in for good measure.

We wish everyone a safe and happy 2016. Drink something good to ring in the new year and give someone a hug.

Hey, y’all. It’s a holiday week. I’m gonna level with you. I’m in the mood to holiday. I need to get my holiday (and Star Wars: The Force Awakens) on. Writing about this week’s Four Brewers episode just doesn’t seem to flow properly. There’s some fun stuff happening this week. Oh, and did I mention Star Wars? Yeah. Star Wars.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

This week’s show is a little random. We’ve got some hoppy stuff, some sour stuff, and some funky stuff, all of which is very good stuff, but let’s face it: they’re no match for a holiday week that also involves Star Wars: The Force Awakens, amirite?

The Good Beer Company is a fairly new brewery from the downtown Santa Ana area of California. We’re drinking three of their sour beers this week, all provided by Mr. Nagel, their biggest fanboy. But is Greg a Star Wars fanboy? To be honest, I really don’t know. Oh, and in case you didn’t hear, Star Wars: The Force Awakens opened last Friday, and it was awesome.

All in all, the beers from The Good Beer Company were in fact pretty damn good, just like Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Star Wars.

Next up is a whale of sorts for us, Side Project Brewing’s Saison du Blé (Batch 4). Matt brought this one, and it’s right up our collective alleys, much like Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

We end the show with two IPAs, Citra from Kern River Brewing, and Broken Skull from El Segundo Brewing Company, made in collaboration with Steve Austin. Yes, that Steve Austin. The “What?!” and “Hell Yeah” guy. He was a badass wrestler back in the day and it turns out that he loves craft beer. But, I didn’t see Steve Austin in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Is Steve Austin a Star Wars fan? HELL YEAH, AND THAT’S THE BOTTOM LINE.

Hey, y’all. It’s a holiday week. I’m gonna level with you. I’m in the mood to holiday. I need to get my holiday (and Star Wars: The Force Awakens) on. Writing about this week’s Four Brewers episode just doesn’t seem to flow properly. There’s some fun stuff happening this week. Oh, and did I mention Star Wars? Yeah. Star Wars.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

This week’s show is a little random. We’ve got some hoppy stuff, some sour stuff, and some funky stuff, all of which is very good stuff, but let’s face it: they’re no match for a holiday week that also involves Star Wars: The Force Awakens, amirite?

The Good Beer Company is a fairly new brewery from the downtown Santa Ana area of California. We’re drinking three of their sour beers this week, all provided by Mr. Nagel, their biggest fanboy. But is Greg a Star Wars fanboy? To be honest, I really don’t know. Oh, and in case you didn’t hear, Star Wars: The Force Awakens opened last Friday, and it was awesome.

All in all, the beers from The Good Beer Company were in fact pretty damn good, just like Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Star Wars.

Next up is a whale of sorts for us, Side Project Brewing’s Saison du Blé (Batch 4). Matt brought this one, and it’s right up our collective alleys, much like Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

We end the show with two IPAs, Citra from Kern River Brewing, and Broken Skull from El Segundo Brewing Company, made in collaboration with Steve Austin. Yes, that Steve Austin. The “What?!” and “Hell Yeah” guy. He was a badass wrestler back in the day and it turns out that he loves craft beer. But, I didn’t see Steve Austin in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Is Steve Austin a Star Wars fan? HELL YEAH, AND THAT’S THE BOTTOM LINE.

This week, we’re diving into some more beers from Destihl Brewery’s Wild Sour Series, as well as some funky stuff from Allagash Brewing Company. Shows from session 27 (episodes 50, 51, and 52) were the first to be recorded in December, so this officially kicks off the 4B 2015 holiday season! It really is the best time of the year.

Destihl Brewery Wild Sour Series

We first learned of Destihl’s awesome sour beers way back in 2012 when John and Mattwere at the Great American Beer Festival. Destihl brought the pain with their awesome sours that made for huge lines during the festival. We had their gose from this same series on the show back in March. Friend and Patreoneer, Sandro Chiavaro recently sent us the other variants in this series, so of course we’re cracking ’em open on the show. Thanks, Sandro!

Net up are some beers from Allagash Brewing Company that we don’t see too often here in southern California. During the tasting of these beers, we are introduced to the newest 4B contributing character, “Golden Brett”, the funky-gold-minin-hop-slingin beer drinker.

We wrap up with the return of Going In Blind, the Greg Nagel edition. Spoiler: We nailed it. BOOM!

This week, we’re diving into some more beers from Destihl Brewery’s Wild Sour Series, as well as some funky stuff from Allagash Brewing Company. Shows from session 27 (episodes 50, 51, and 52) were the first to be recorded in December, so this officially kicks off the 4B 2015 holiday season! It really is the best time of the year.

Destihl Brewery Wild Sour Series

We first learned of Destihl’s awesome sour beers way back in 2012 when John and Mattwere at the Great American Beer Festival. Destihl brought the pain with their awesome sours that made for huge lines during the festival. We had their gose from this same series on the show back in March. Friend and Patreoneer, Sandro Chiavaro recently sent us the other variants in this series, so of course we’re cracking ’em open on the show. Thanks, Sandro!

Net up are some beers from Allagash Brewing Company that we don’t see too often here in southern California. During the tasting of these beers, we are introduced to the newest 4B contributing character, “Golden Brett”, the funky-gold-minin-hop-slingin beer drinker.

We wrap up with the return of Going In Blind, the Greg Nagel edition. Spoiler: We nailed it. BOOM!

]]>01:07:14yes[S2/E49] The BrueryTue, 08 Dec 2015 06:06:27 +0000Season 2, Episode 49 – This week, we’re finally raiding our collective cellars for the best beers from The Bruery that we could gather.

This week, we’re drinking a lot of beer from The Bruery. On paper, four beers may not seem like a lot, but when it comes to The Bruery and their rich and usually higher ABV beers, it’s a lot, especially for John, ahem…

Beers from The Bruery and Bruery Terreux

While an epic event such as this would warrant an even more epic blog post, we’re going to let this episode speak for itself. Needless to say, The Bruery makes many stellar beers and they aren’t afraid to tread in water that others would normally not even dip a toe into. The Bruery is a local favorite for us for different reasons, and they’re really one of the best breweries in the world, and that’s not hyperbole, son.

Expect more from The Bruery in future episodes of Four Brewers. Between the four of us and our cellars, there’s much to be consumed.

]]>Season 2, Episode 49 – This week, we’re finally raiding our collective cellars for the best beers from The Bruery that we could gather.

This week, we’re drinking a lot of beer from The Bruery. On paper, four beers may not seem like a lot, but when it comes to The Bruery and their rich and usually higher ABV beers, it’s a lot, especially for John, ahem…

Beers from The Bruery and Bruery Terreux

While an epic event such as this would warrant an even more epic blog post, we’re going to let this episode speak for itself. Needless to say, The Bruery makes many stellar beers and they aren’t afraid to tread in water that others would normally not even dip a toe into. The Bruery is a local favorite for us for different reasons, and they’re really one of the best breweries in the world, and that’s not hyperbole, son.

Expect more from The Bruery in future episodes of Four Brewers. Between the four of us and our cellars, there’s much to be consumed.

]]>01:12:07yes[S2/E48] New English? What Happened to the Olde English?Mon, 30 Nov 2015 01:10:20 +0000Season 2, Episode 48 – This week on the most awesomest beer podcast on the Internet as far as we’re concerned and more than confident is actually true according us, are some mostly local brews and one brew that some how snuck into the “locals only” party.

We’re drinking stoutish beers on the show this week. “Stoutish” according to the Four Brewers Dictionary (it isn’t a real dictionary) means “a dark beer that may not be a stout but has certain traits that would lead one to believe it is a stout, and it’s also part of a larger beer tasting that has actual stouts in it, therefore one could say that it’s a group of stouts that aren’t all stouts; also there’s an IPA thrown in for fun and good measure.”

Yeah. We’re doing that this week.

Beers from New English, Ritual Brewing, and Sierra Nevada

First up are some stoutish beers from New English Brewing Co., the first of which is an IPA, which is obviously not a stout, but falls in line with the Four Brewers definition of stoutish, so it qualifies.

Anyway, the beer is called Pure and Simple IPA, and it is in fact just that: pure and simple. New English is a fairly new San Diego area brewery, so it’s almost like they need to make a great IPA to even be considered as qualified for leasing brewing space in the area. This beer doesn’t disappoint. If you want a pure and simple IPA, then look no further…or look further and drink another great IPA from another great brewery after you drink this one. Tasty, San Diego IPA is fairly ubiquitous at this point. Damn, it feels good to be a beer geek in the golden age of craft beer.

Next up, we get to the stoutish-er (do I *really* need to define this?) beers which we kick off with two more beers from New English Brewing Co., the Brewers Special Brown Ale and the Bourbon Barrel Aged Brown. These beers are once again very, very good. New English even won gold at this year’s Great American Beer Festival, but it wasn’t for these stoutish beers. It was for an actual stout, which (guess what?!) is up next.

Zumbar Chocolate Coffee Imperial Stout is up next. This is not a stoutish beer. It’s a goddamn stout. This beer won gold at the Great American Beer Festival this year. It’s pretty rad and it was the inspiration for this weeks episode. Buy it. Drink it. High-five the brewer.

Ritual Brewing Co. is a local brewery to 3/4 Four Brewers, located in Redlands, California. They recently celebrated their 3rd anniversary, so congrats to them for that! Java Deluxecame out a few weeks before their anniversary party to much fanfare. It’s made with coffee from local coffee roaster Stell Coffee, and it’s great. Ritual also won gold this year at the GABF for an aged variant of Big Deluxe.

Here’s something cool: we tasted a cuvée of Java Deluxe and Zumbar. (Did it disappoint? Well, since I said it was something cool that we did, probably not. If I said it was something lame that we did, that would be telling as well.)

We finish up with some “Guess That Brew!” and some 4B Patreon shout-outs while sipping on a beer included with this year’s Sierra Nevada Brewing Company winter pack, Coffee Stout.

]]>Season 2, Episode 48 – This week on the most awesomest beer podcast on the Internet as far as we’re concerned and more than confident is actually true according us, are some mostly local brews and one brew that some how snuck into the “locals only” party.

We’re drinking stoutish beers on the show this week. “Stoutish” according to the Four Brewers Dictionary (it isn’t a real dictionary) means “a dark beer that may not be a stout but has certain traits that would lead one to believe it is a stout, and it’s also part of a larger beer tasting that has actual stouts in it, therefore one could say that it’s a group of stouts that aren’t all stouts; also there’s an IPA thrown in for fun and good measure.”

Yeah. We’re doing that this week.

Beers from New English, Ritual Brewing, and Sierra Nevada

First up are some stoutish beers from New English Brewing Co., the first of which is an IPA, which is obviously not a stout, but falls in line with the Four Brewers definition of stoutish, so it qualifies.

Anyway, the beer is called Pure and Simple IPA, and it is in fact just that: pure and simple. New English is a fairly new San Diego area brewery, so it’s almost like they need to make a great IPA to even be considered as qualified for leasing brewing space in the area. This beer doesn’t disappoint. If you want a pure and simple IPA, then look no further…or look further and drink another great IPA from another great brewery after you drink this one. Tasty, San Diego IPA is fairly ubiquitous at this point. Damn, it feels good to be a beer geek in the golden age of craft beer.

Next up, we get to the stoutish-er (do I *really* need to define this?) beers which we kick off with two more beers from New English Brewing Co., the Brewers Special Brown Ale and the Bourbon Barrel Aged Brown. These beers are once again very, very good. New English even won gold at this year’s Great American Beer Festival, but it wasn’t for these stoutish beers. It was for an actual stout, which (guess what?!) is up next.

Zumbar Chocolate Coffee Imperial Stout is up next. This is not a stoutish beer. It’s a goddamn stout. This beer won gold at the Great American Beer Festival this year. It’s pretty rad and it was the inspiration for this weeks episode. Buy it. Drink it. High-five the brewer.

Ritual Brewing Co. is a local brewery to 3/4 Four Brewers, located in Redlands, California. They recently celebrated their 3rd anniversary, so congrats to them for that! Java Deluxecame out a few weeks before their anniversary party to much fanfare. It’s made with coffee from local coffee roaster Stell Coffee, and it’s great. Ritual also won gold this year at the GABF for an aged variant of Big Deluxe.

Here’s something cool: we tasted a cuvée of Java Deluxe and Zumbar. (Did it disappoint? Well, since I said it was something cool that we did, probably not. If I said it was something lame that we did, that would be telling as well.)

We finish up with some “Guess That Brew!” and some 4B Patreon shout-outs while sipping on a beer included with this year’s Sierra Nevada Brewing Company winter pack, Coffee Stout.

This week we are joined once again by our good friend Jesse Friedman, co-owner and brewer at Almanac Beer Co. in San Fransisco, California, and we’re drinking some really interesting stuff that encompasses the worlds of beer, wine, and spirits.

Almanac Beer Co. Beers with Seven Stills Dogpatch Whiskey

First up is the Almanac Dogpatch Sour. This beer is made with dried Rainier cherries and aged in red wine barrels for a number of months. The beer has a nice lactic tartness to it with the cherries giving it an extra fruity kick. Here’s something interesting. There is an undetectable amount of acetic acid in the beer, which we learned from Jesse is a good thing. Having a beer that is entirely lactic makes for a somewhat boring and overwhelmingly tart and thin beer. Almanac is by no means in the business of making vinegar bombs, but they’ve learned from others in the industry that acetic acid can also be your friend when it comes to making delicious sours.

Almanac Beer Co. Dogpatch and Farmer’s Reserve Grand Cru

The next couple of beers are really interesting. The Dogpatch Grand Cru is essentially a beefed up version the Dogpatch Sour, but with a couple of twists. Jesse walks us through exactly what goes into making this beer on the show, but we’ll try to sum it up here. It’s basically comprised of 30% red wine grapes, consisting of Zinfandel, Syrah, Tannat, Petite Syrah, and Tempranillo grapes. Two versions of the beer are aged in new French oak barrels and then blended back together to make the final product. This is not your typical sour ale. The red wine presence is quite big, making for a complex and satisfying experience. It’s pretty damn good.

The Farmer’s Reserve Grand Cru goes through a similar production process, but instead of using a variety of red wine grapes, this beer uses Muscat grapes. This beer got a lot of different reactions from the room. In summary, it’s loaded with aromas of pineapple, lychee, mango, and even a hint of Nelson hops, even though Nelson wasn’t used to make this beer. The wine presence comes through really nice on the palate, just like the Dogpatch Grand Cru. Think of these beers as beer and wine hybrids. Almanac wasn’t subtle about it either. Jesse thinks the best thing about both of these beers is how they can divide a room and really get people talking about what they’re experiencing while drinking the beer. Mission accomplished.

Seven Stills Dogpatch Whiskey

We wrap up the show with a first for Four Brewers. We’re drinking some Dogpatch Whiskeyfrom Seven Stills, made in collaboration with Almanac. Seven Stills is known for making whiskey that is influenced by beer. Seven Stills is from the same neighborhood in San Fransisco as Almanac called “Dogpatch”, so this collaboration seemed natural. In order to make for a proper wash for distilling, Almanac brewed a version of Dogpatch Sour with wheat added to the grain bill and higher starting gravity that made for a higher post-fermentation alcohol level. After distillation, the whiskey was aged in used Dogpatch Sour barrels and then aged again in Dogpatch Sour Grand Cru barrels. This whiskey is cask strength, so you may want to add some water to cut down those fusel notes.

Wood, cinnamon, vanilla, cotton candy, taffy, black pepper, caramel, and honey characteristics all come through on the aroma and palate. At $45-$50, this isn’t a cheap whiskey, but it’s unique and delicious. Seven Stills is on to something, here…

]]>Season 2, Episode 47 – This week we’re hanging out with Jesse Friedman, co-owner and brewer at San Francisco’s Almanac Beer Co., and we’re drinking some really special stuff.

This week we are joined once again by our good friend Jesse Friedman, co-owner and brewer at Almanac Beer Co. in San Fransisco, California, and we’re drinking some really interesting stuff that encompasses the worlds of beer, wine, and spirits.

Almanac Beer Co. Beers with Seven Stills Dogpatch Whiskey

First up is the Almanac Dogpatch Sour. This beer is made with dried Rainier cherries and aged in red wine barrels for a number of months. The beer has a nice lactic tartness to it with the cherries giving it an extra fruity kick. Here’s something interesting. There is an undetectable amount of acetic acid in the beer, which we learned from Jesse is a good thing. Having a beer that is entirely lactic makes for a somewhat boring and overwhelmingly tart and thin beer. Almanac is by no means in the business of making vinegar bombs, but they’ve learned from others in the industry that acetic acid can also be your friend when it comes to making delicious sours.

Almanac Beer Co. Dogpatch and Farmer’s Reserve Grand Cru

The next couple of beers are really interesting. The Dogpatch Grand Cru is essentially a beefed up version the Dogpatch Sour, but with a couple of twists. Jesse walks us through exactly what goes into making this beer on the show, but we’ll try to sum it up here. It’s basically comprised of 30% red wine grapes, consisting of Zinfandel, Syrah, Tannat, Petite Syrah, and Tempranillo grapes. Two versions of the beer are aged in new French oak barrels and then blended back together to make the final product. This is not your typical sour ale. The red wine presence is quite big, making for a complex and satisfying experience. It’s pretty damn good.

The Farmer’s Reserve Grand Cru goes through a similar production process, but instead of using a variety of red wine grapes, this beer uses Muscat grapes. This beer got a lot of different reactions from the room. In summary, it’s loaded with aromas of pineapple, lychee, mango, and even a hint of Nelson hops, even though Nelson wasn’t used to make this beer. The wine presence comes through really nice on the palate, just like the Dogpatch Grand Cru. Think of these beers as beer and wine hybrids. Almanac wasn’t subtle about it either. Jesse thinks the best thing about both of these beers is how they can divide a room and really get people talking about what they’re experiencing while drinking the beer. Mission accomplished.

Seven Stills Dogpatch Whiskey

We wrap up the show with a first for Four Brewers. We’re drinking some Dogpatch Whiskeyfrom Seven Stills, made in collaboration with Almanac. Seven Stills is known for making whiskey that is influenced by beer. Seven Stills is from the same neighborhood in San Fransisco as Almanac called “Dogpatch”, so this collaboration seemed natural. In order to make for a proper wash for distilling, Almanac brewed a version of Dogpatch Sour with wheat added to the grain bill and higher starting gravity that made for a higher post-fermentation alcohol level. After distillation, the whiskey was aged in used Dogpatch Sour barrels and then aged again in Dogpatch Sour Grand Cru barrels. This whiskey is cask strength, so you may want to add some water to cut down those fusel notes.

Wood, cinnamon, vanilla, cotton candy, taffy, black pepper, caramel, and honey characteristics all come through on the aroma and palate. At $45-$50, this isn’t a cheap whiskey, but it’s unique and delicious. Seven Stills is on to something, here…

]]>01:06:01yes[S2/E46] A Fetish, a Cart, a Crux, and a YardMon, 16 Nov 2015 00:00:00 +0000Season 2, Episode 46 – This week, beers from two of Los Angeles’ best breweries, Highland Park Brewery and Monkish Brewing Co..

We’re heading back to L.A. this week with two collaboration beers from Monkish Brewing Co. and Highland Park Brewery. These breweries are quickly becoming pillars of Los Angeles beer with their awesome farmhouse and sour ales. Highland Park Brewery and Monkish got together in what we consider a match made in beer heaven to make two collaboration beers, Cart Fetish and Pushin’ Carts.

Monkish and Highland Park Beers

Keeping with the theme of the show, we’re also drinking Monkish Brewing’s first foudre fermented beer, Haiku de Saison and one of our all time favs, Crux. From Highland Park Brewery, we’re drinking Yard Beer, an early favorite of Jason’s that’s pretty great.

Exciting things are happening in Los Angeles beer. The beers that Monkish and Highland Park are brewing are nothing less than exceptional, varying from the classic SoCal hoppy IPA to funky and Belgian inspired sour beers. With breweries acquisitions becoming more commonplace, it’s nice to know that curious, innovative, and talented people will be there to keep craft beer going strong.

We’re heading back to L.A. this week with two collaboration beers from Monkish Brewing Co. and Highland Park Brewery. These breweries are quickly becoming pillars of Los Angeles beer with their awesome farmhouse and sour ales. Highland Park Brewery and Monkish got together in what we consider a match made in beer heaven to make two collaboration beers, Cart Fetish and Pushin’ Carts.

Monkish and Highland Park Beers

Keeping with the theme of the show, we’re also drinking Monkish Brewing’s first foudre fermented beer, Haiku de Saison and one of our all time favs, Crux. From Highland Park Brewery, we’re drinking Yard Beer, an early favorite of Jason’s that’s pretty great.

Exciting things are happening in Los Angeles beer. The beers that Monkish and Highland Park are brewing are nothing less than exceptional, varying from the classic SoCal hoppy IPA to funky and Belgian inspired sour beers. With breweries acquisitions becoming more commonplace, it’s nice to know that curious, innovative, and talented people will be there to keep craft beer going strong.

If you’re a craft beer drinker, you’ve heard of Russian River Brewing Company. Craft beer drinkers far and wide seem to adore Russian River and their beers, ranging from the somewhat hard to find and ever-so-hoppy Pliny The Elder, to the hard to get beers like the tart and acidic Beatification.

Russian River has roots in the Inland Empire of southern California, originally hailing from Temecula, California, but moved up the coast to Santa Rosa, California, which is where they call home today.

Pliny The Elder

We’re kicking off the show with the legendary beer geek-hoppy-holy-grail, Pliny The Elder. Bottles of this beer tend to be hard to find outside of central California, so getting some bottles for the show this week was a bit of an endeavor for us. Luckily, we have a few friends in high places, and were able to score a couple bottles, one from La Bodega Wine & Spirits in Riverside, California, and at the last minute, El Cerrito Liquor in Corona, California.

Pliny The Elder is a beer that is best enjoyed fresh, due to the copious amount of dry hops used in secondary fermentation. IPA in general should always be consumed as fresh as possible, and Russian River goes out of their way to make sure you know this by plastering it all over the bottle’s label.

Russian River Brewing Company Beers

We’re drinking A LOT of Russian River beers on the show this week, so we’re not going to get too in depth on the blog post about them. We tried to get as many as possible, going as far as San Diego the day before the show to pick up a bottle of 2013 Framboise for a Cure from the legendary cellar of “Dr. Bill” Sysak. We also got a bottle of Beatification from our good friend, Cougar Steve, which he brought back from a recent trip to Russian River Brewing Company.

Huge thanks once again to Kim at La Bodega Wine & Spirits and Jazz at El Cerrito Liquorfor the Pliny, as well as Dr. Bill and Cougar Steve for the whalez hookups. It takes a village to do a bar podcast, you know…

If you’re a craft beer drinker, you’ve heard of Russian River Brewing Company. Craft beer drinkers far and wide seem to adore Russian River and their beers, ranging from the somewhat hard to find and ever-so-hoppy Pliny The Elder, to the hard to get beers like the tart and acidic Beatification.

Russian River has roots in the Inland Empire of southern California, originally hailing from Temecula, California, but moved up the coast to Santa Rosa, California, which is where they call home today.

Pliny The Elder

We’re kicking off the show with the legendary beer geek-hoppy-holy-grail, Pliny The Elder. Bottles of this beer tend to be hard to find outside of central California, so getting some bottles for the show this week was a bit of an endeavor for us. Luckily, we have a few friends in high places, and were able to score a couple bottles, one from La Bodega Wine & Spirits in Riverside, California, and at the last minute, El Cerrito Liquor in Corona, California.

Pliny The Elder is a beer that is best enjoyed fresh, due to the copious amount of dry hops used in secondary fermentation. IPA in general should always be consumed as fresh as possible, and Russian River goes out of their way to make sure you know this by plastering it all over the bottle’s label.

Russian River Brewing Company Beers

We’re drinking A LOT of Russian River beers on the show this week, so we’re not going to get too in depth on the blog post about them. We tried to get as many as possible, going as far as San Diego the day before the show to pick up a bottle of 2013 Framboise for a Cure from the legendary cellar of “Dr. Bill” Sysak. We also got a bottle of Beatification from our good friend, Cougar Steve, which he brought back from a recent trip to Russian River Brewing Company.

Huge thanks once again to Kim at La Bodega Wine & Spirits and Jazz at El Cerrito Liquorfor the Pliny, as well as Dr. Bill and Cougar Steve for the whalez hookups. It takes a village to do a bar podcast, you know…

]]>01:17:39yes[S2/E44] The Blendery at Beachwood BBQ and BrewingSun, 01 Nov 2015 17:30:00 +0000Season 2, Episode 44 – This week, we’re at The Beachwood Blendery with Gabe Gordon and Ryan Fields drinking the first two bottle releases from The Blendery, Propagation 001 and 002.

Propagation 001 and 002 go on sale TODAY, November 1, at 11 am. If you’re not already in line, get down to The Blendery and pick up some bottles ASAP!

The time has finally come, and we couldn’t be more excited. Beachwood BBQ and Brewing‘s new sour/wild beer project is finally off the ground. They’re releasing their first two beers today, Propagation 001 and 002, a petite saison and a Berliner weisse, respectively. Beachwood has quickly become one of the best breweries in southern California, garnering awards at the World Beer Cup and medals at the Great American Beer Festival. When they announced The Blendery back in December of 2014, beer geeks everywhere knew they were in for something special.

The Blendery at Beachwood BBQ and Brewing

This week, we’ve got owner and chef, Gabe Gordon and brewer/barrelmaster Ryan Fieldson the show with us. We’re kicking it off with the first Propagation series beer, a petite saison made with 12 different strains of brettanomyces. We talk to Gabe and Ryan about the process and the inspration behind the beers and the brewery itself, as well as what Gabe thinks a really good gueuze shouldn’t be (spoiler: it shouldn’t be an acetic vinegar bomb. Word.).

Propagation 001: Petite Saison with Brettanomyces

One of the coolest things about The Blendery is their dedication to figuring out why Belgian gueuze is what it is. Is it possible to make these world-class, well known styles of beer in downtown Long Beach? Their approach to the process is both scientific and playful. Restrained experimentation and a structured, scientific process is the heart and soul of The Blendery. Ultimately, their goal is to make beers that even Belgian brewers could appreciate.

Propagation Series Beers

Propagation 002 is the next beer on deck. This beer could easily be considered a reference for the Berliner weisse style of beer. It’s damn near perfect, and refreshingly delicious. While many might scoff at such a “simple” offering, Ryan reminds us that if you can’t even brew the most basic of beers in a particular style, then maybe you shouldn’t be brewing them at all.

]]>Season 2, Episode 44 – This week, we’re at The Beachwood Blendery with Gabe Gordon and Ryan Fields drinking the first two bottle releases from The Blendery, Propagation 001 and 002.

Propagation 001 and 002 go on sale TODAY, November 1, at 11 am. If you’re not already in line, get down to The Blendery and pick up some bottles ASAP!

The time has finally come, and we couldn’t be more excited. Beachwood BBQ and Brewing‘s new sour/wild beer project is finally off the ground. They’re releasing their first two beers today, Propagation 001 and 002, a petite saison and a Berliner weisse, respectively. Beachwood has quickly become one of the best breweries in southern California, garnering awards at the World Beer Cup and medals at the Great American Beer Festival. When they announced The Blendery back in December of 2014, beer geeks everywhere knew they were in for something special.

The Blendery at Beachwood BBQ and Brewing

This week, we’ve got owner and chef, Gabe Gordon and brewer/barrelmaster Ryan Fieldson the show with us. We’re kicking it off with the first Propagation series beer, a petite saison made with 12 different strains of brettanomyces. We talk to Gabe and Ryan about the process and the inspration behind the beers and the brewery itself, as well as what Gabe thinks a really good gueuze shouldn’t be (spoiler: it shouldn’t be an acetic vinegar bomb. Word.).

Propagation 001: Petite Saison with Brettanomyces

One of the coolest things about The Blendery is their dedication to figuring out why Belgian gueuze is what it is. Is it possible to make these world-class, well known styles of beer in downtown Long Beach? Their approach to the process is both scientific and playful. Restrained experimentation and a structured, scientific process is the heart and soul of The Blendery. Ultimately, their goal is to make beers that even Belgian brewers could appreciate.

Propagation Series Beers

Propagation 002 is the next beer on deck. This beer could easily be considered a reference for the Berliner weisse style of beer. It’s damn near perfect, and refreshingly delicious. While many might scoff at such a “simple” offering, Ryan reminds us that if you can’t even brew the most basic of beers in a particular style, then maybe you shouldn’t be brewing them at all.

This week’s episode is sort of a mixed bag. A little bit of homebrew, some macro beer, some kettle sours, and some IPA. Nothing wrong with mixing it up, right?

nagelBOOCH Kombucha

We’re kicking off the show with some home-brewed kombucha by Mr. Nagel. If you’ve never heard of kombucha, it’s basically fermented tea. It usually has a funky aroma with a sometimes fruity and tart taste. It’s very low in alcohol, and is loaded with many of the same microbial thingies you’d find in yogurt. I also hear it’s great for hangovers…just sayin’.

If you’re interested in making your own batch of ‘booch, Kombucha Brooklyn sells an inexpensive kit that comes with everything you need to get started.

Guinness Nitro IPA

Next, we’re going to the dark side, or, the light side, in Guinness’ case. Guinness recently announced their Nitro IPA. Yep. IPA, in a can, on nitrogen gas. We’re fans of Guinness so we thought we’d give it a shot. Spoiler alert: The beer is a bit bland overall, but not bad, which is better than what we expected. Get it now while it’s fresh if you want to try it.

Ironfire Brewing Company

Our good friend, John Ryti is back on the show with us for the next few episodes, and he brought some beers from a great brewery based in Temecula, California, Ironfire Brewing Company. Ironfire just released their first two kettle-soured beers named, Sex and Violence, and Fast and Loose. Kettle-souring beers seems to be all the rage right now (kettle sours are the new session IPA…), and for good reason. They’re relatively easy to produce, and they won’t infect your brewhouse, since the wort is being boiled after the bacteria has “soured” it. Ironfire takes kettle souring to a new level by aging it in barrels and adding fruit. All the yums.

We finish up with a beer more in line with what Ironfire is known for, a tasty double IPA called Dead on Arrival.

]]>Season 2, Episode 43 – This week, our good friend John Ryti joins us and he brought some killer brew from Ironfire Brewing Company in Temecula, California.

This week’s episode is sort of a mixed bag. A little bit of homebrew, some macro beer, some kettle sours, and some IPA. Nothing wrong with mixing it up, right?

nagelBOOCH Kombucha

We’re kicking off the show with some home-brewed kombucha by Mr. Nagel. If you’ve never heard of kombucha, it’s basically fermented tea. It usually has a funky aroma with a sometimes fruity and tart taste. It’s very low in alcohol, and is loaded with many of the same microbial thingies you’d find in yogurt. I also hear it’s great for hangovers…just sayin’.

If you’re interested in making your own batch of ‘booch, Kombucha Brooklyn sells an inexpensive kit that comes with everything you need to get started.

Guinness Nitro IPA

Next, we’re going to the dark side, or, the light side, in Guinness’ case. Guinness recently announced their Nitro IPA. Yep. IPA, in a can, on nitrogen gas. We’re fans of Guinness so we thought we’d give it a shot. Spoiler alert: The beer is a bit bland overall, but not bad, which is better than what we expected. Get it now while it’s fresh if you want to try it.

Ironfire Brewing Company

Our good friend, John Ryti is back on the show with us for the next few episodes, and he brought some beers from a great brewery based in Temecula, California, Ironfire Brewing Company. Ironfire just released their first two kettle-soured beers named, Sex and Violence, and Fast and Loose. Kettle-souring beers seems to be all the rage right now (kettle sours are the new session IPA…), and for good reason. They’re relatively easy to produce, and they won’t infect your brewhouse, since the wort is being boiled after the bacteria has “soured” it. Ironfire takes kettle souring to a new level by aging it in barrels and adding fruit. All the yums.

We finish up with a beer more in line with what Ironfire is known for, a tasty double IPA called Dead on Arrival.